Children for the Stars
by Nadie2
Summary: Sam and Jack go missing after some close drunken dancing at an off world party. Daniel and Teal'c are determined to get the back. Jack and Sam are more focused on their efforts to produce lots of babies to spread the Federation through the stars. Of course, the fact that they are kept constantly drugged isn't helping matters much.
1. The Party

"I am concerned about the amount of libation that Samantha Carter is consuming," Teal'c observes as he watches her from across the room down another shot, and chose another handsome young man to dance with her.

"She's a big girl, she can take care of herself," Jack says grinding his teeth together.

Teal'c pushes a drink toward his friend, clearly thinking that this member of the team could do with a few _more_ libations.

"I don't know Jack, the last time that she got this drunk was on that planet where she started shedding clothes," Daniel observes.

As if hearing and liking the suggestion Sam shrugs off her tac jacket to waiting man who lays it down on the table. With the weight gone her dance becomes a bit more suggestive.

Jack stands up without another word to his friend, and walks across the room. Her eyes lock on his, and those eyes are proclaiming all sorts of things that even this drunk, she wouldn't let it slip out of her mouth.

He grins at her. This cocky little thing that means he's really happy. Daniel's never seen it. Teal'c has, only once when he agreed to go fishing with the man.

She runs across the dance floor to meet him. He spins her before pulling her in for a dance, which is way too close for regulations. He whispers something into her ear, and she giggles. Not with restraint like she's in a briefing room, but with the pure joy of a woman who is in the arms of a man that she loves.

"Do you think we should break this up?" Daniel says nervously. What is happening is so out of character for the pair of them, and Daniel is pretty sure it has a great deal to do with the surprising strength of the mild tasting alien alcohol. He had a feeling that his teammates were really going to regret all of this in the morning.

"I think we should allow warriors of their caliber to steal what joy they can," Teal'c says seriously.

Daniel gives that thought the moment of silence that it has earned before he says with a sigh, "I just hope they are both going to remember all of this in the morning."

"Indeed," Teal'c says. Just then Sam lets an outrageously loud giggle as Jack dips her close to the floor. She clings to his forearms as if she is terrified, but that face is not terrified. She really trusts him.

He lets her up, pulling her into an even closer dance, resting his chin on her shoulder. Her hand tucks comfortably into the back of his BDU pants.

Daniel looks away, affording them a moment of privacy for the stolen joy they will definitely regret, and probably not remember, but which Daniel is definitely not going to interrupt.


	2. Day 1

Samantha Carter stands before the door with nerves curling into her stomach. She glanced down at herself. Impeccably dressed, even if it wasn't really her, shimmer, white, and lots of lace, every inch but her face covered. She raises her hand to the door to knock before she loses her nerve.

A pair of deep brown eyes opens the door. She is lost in them, for longer than she'd like to admit. The eyes are traveling up and down her body, and they like what they see.

She blushes. She finally manages to break her eyes away from his and peruses his body with the same acclaim. The clothes are nice of course, but they aren't him anymore than her dress is her. The long flowing robe with lots of embroidery and tassels. God, he isn't the sort of man who can pull of tassels.

"Hello," she says hoping sound will keep his eyes from her. Her hand finally goes down realizing it doesn't need to knock.

"I assume you are my new wife," he says.

She nods.

The man extends his hand to her. Not sideways like he's ready for a handshake, but palm up like…

She puts her hand in his, "Samantha Carter," she says.

"O'Neill," he corrects. "I'm Jack, come on in."

The marriage cabin is pretty small. There is a bunk bed against one wall. The room divider against the other. Beyond it she can see the next day worth of clothing, and restroom facilities which strike her as a bit primitive, but accetable. There is the table and cushions already on the floor ready for the bonding ceremony.

She drops down onto her cushion right away. He paces.

"Are you okay?" she says nervously.

"Fine," he says with confidence. He flinches as he goes to his knees, "I'm older than you."

She smiles, "I don't mind."

"I think they made a mistake when they paired the two of us together," he observes.

She looks down, "You want to reject me?"

"No," he seems confused, "You're young and beautiful! I thought you'd want to trade me up for someone, more like you."

She smiles at him, "I think this union will make both of us very happy."

He kneels then, as he is supposed to, and pours the tea. It does its job calming her, making her feel peaceful and trusting, and…

"I love you. Only you. Always you. You are mine, and I am yours," he says his vows.

Yes, that is exactly what she feels. She says the words to. She wants to break all the bonding rules. She wants to touch him now. She feels like you should be able to kiss someone after you've said your wedding vows. Of course she knows that that is wrong. She knows what day you kiss on. Still, the force that draws her to him now is powerful.

He's looking at her, starring deep into her yes.

Of course he is, he's doing that because that is the proper way to react when you've just married someone. You are supposed to stare into their eyes for thirty full minutes.

She isn't sure that she can last that long. Not with those chocolate brown puddles melting her. Still, she raises her eyes to his, and she hears him click his watch to begin the time.

Her heart is so full that she can barely breath. It goes on so long she learns to breath through it. She dives into his chocolate eyes, drowns in them, especially the place where the brown meets the white.

He giggles. She wants to ask him what he's laughing at, but talking means the time starts over. Soon the giggle catches. They are breathing together, their hearts are beating together.

It stops being weird, the looking into his eyes, his soul. The watch beeps. They don't stop starring.

"There are cookies," he offers. He looks away first, to grab one. She grabs one off the table between them as well.

"So, Samantha, top or bottom?" he asks. She stares at him in shock for a second before he actually hears what he says. He coughs, "Bunk. Top or bottom bunk."

"Whichever you prefer," she says bashfully.

"Top then," he says with his eyes gleaming at her. He's not just talking about the bunk beds anymore.

They lay in their bunk beds until they are almost asleep. "Goodnight Mrs. O'Neill," he practically whispers.

She's pretty sure she's going to like being married.


	3. Compromised

Daniel is pretty sure that they are all going to die by way of oppressive silence. Usually, he would just start talking, but given the two alternatives he would rather die by silence than by talking too much.

The General's stomach goes in and out with three silence yells before he lets one out of his mouth, "What I want to know is how the hell do you two let this happen?"

"We were not in the direct vicinity of Major Carter and O'Neill at the time of the incident," Teal'c replies.

Daniel marvels at the fact that Teal'c is unflinching in the face of the General.

"Where exactly where you when my officers were being compromised?" The General asks.

"We were enjoying the local festivities," Teal'c replies.

"Not enjoying as in having fun," Daniel amends.

"I rather enjoy watching humans consume liquids which diminish their judgment," Teal'c replies.

"Remember how we talked about TMI, Teal'c, perfect example," Daniel mutters, "General, Sir, we were trying to establish trade negotiations. That's why we were at the party. As much as Teal'c might have enjoyed it, we were there for business reasons."

"That still doesn't explain why you lost half of your team!" The General argues.

"The party split into two groups. The dancers, and the watchers. We were just going with the cultural norm. We had no idea… we never would have imagined they were in any kind of danger. There were hundreds of people there, a peaceful assembly. The whole time we were there were no hostile actions."

"This is not even the first time you've misplaced a team member to excessive partying, and drugs. If you do not start learning from your mistakes SG-1 maybe I should consider getting a team that will!"

"Sir, we are going to get them back," Daniel declares.

"They were sent through the Stargate to another planet. The people on that planet have no record of which one. There are hundreds of options. Each one is full of hundreds of thousands of honeymoons cabins. Even if I decide to engage the SGC full time in the interrupting of the marital bliss of an alien race it's going to take a while to find them."

"I'll do it!" Daniel volunteers quickly enough to make himself blush. He wishes Jack were here to make an off-color joke about his eagerness.

"I have not yet authorized a mission," the General begins.

"With all due respect, Sir, we lost members of our team. We need to get them back," Daniel says firmly.

The General sighs, "How many times has this happened before?"

"Members of our team being captured by aliens?" Daniel asks beginning to count on our fingers.

"Twenty-four times," Teal'c says in a monotone.

"I'm asking you how many times your team mates have wondered off together while on duty!" The general says with fury in his face.

"Never," Daniel says in a tone so serious that the General finds it hard to question his honesty. "I'm not saying the two of them having looked googly eyes at each other, but they have never let it interfere with their business. They never got distracted, and they certainly have not been slinking off to do the nasty with each other in the bushes while they are supposed to be working," Daniel says rising out of his chair in anger at the implication. "When I think of all they went through to keep themselves from doing anything, only to be accused of it anyway!"

"How about on world? Have they engaged in a romantic relationship on world?" Hammond asks.

"Never," Daniel says. The General gives a glance to Teal'c who does his slow Jaffa nod of assent.

"You're sure?" The General asks.

"Positive. Jack keeps his personal life pretty locked up, but Sam is an open book when it comes to her personal life. I might just be the closest thing to a girlfriend that she has. She's shared all of her romantic relationships for years with me. She might be able to keep secrets related to the Stargate, but that is the only secrets she keeps," Daniel declares.

"All right, dismissed. Rest up, because I might be sending you on a rescue mission when I figure out how to mop up this mess you made," he says bursting back into his office.

"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asks.

"Yes?" Daniel replies.

"What is 'the nasty'?" The Jaffa asks.

"Go ask your parents," Daniel says falling into the chair and holding his head.

"My parents are both deceased," Teal'c reminds him.

"It means sex," Daniel explains.

"I have never found the experience to be 'nasty'," Teal'c replies. Daniel begins to lightly bang his head on the table, "I will have to inform the General that O'Neill, and Major Carter have engaged in sex before."

"What?" Daniel sputters, "When?"

"I do not know the exact dates, but I was under the impression that most humans of their age had engaged in this activity," Teal'c says confused.

Daniel lets out a laugh, it's high pitch and stress related, "But not with each other, right? Sam and Jack didn't have sex with each other?"

"Not to my knowledge," Teal'c replies. "Although, based on what we saw of the dance when they were at the party it is within the realms of the believable that…"

"Stop," Daniel says with a wave of his hand. "I'm going to go catch a nap before we get called out to search."

"You may want become more comfortable with the concepts of human reproduction before we begin to speak with those in the process of mating."

"Thank you, Teal'c," Daniel says sounding very wary as he walks away.

Then Teal'c returns to his quarters in an attempt to Kal-no-rem away the guilt caused by lettings his two friends go off in each other's arms to their own doom.


	4. Day 2

Sam wakes up completely confused by where she is. She expects to see a ceiling above her, or a tent canvas, instead it's the bottom of a bunk bed. The bunk bed moves. No, he moves. Jack O'Neill. Her new husband. She goes all soft and mushy inside at the thought.

She gets out of bed as quietly as she can, and she creeps over to the washstand. She uses one of the new toothbrushes, and scrubs her face. A laugh caused Sam to turn around.

"What?" she asks narrowing her eyes at him.

He jumps down from the bunk, "It's just funny that you are creeping out of bed trying to impress me."

"Why is that funny?" she asks deeply offended.

"Because you don't have to _try_ to impress me. Your incredibly impressive."

She blushes and giggles. They lock eyes, and neither can look away. He wants so badly to touch her just her cheek, but unauthorized contact would invalidate their wedding, and he needs to be married to her the same way that he needs to draw breath.

The moment is only interrupted by a knock at the door.

"It's open," Jack says.

Overly cheerful servants dart into the room hanging second day clothes, and second night clothes for each of them in the closet, clearing the last day's tea dishes, and laying out the sunrise meal.

"Thank you," Jack says reaching into his pocket to find….what? He doesn't have pockets, and if he did what would he expect to find there? Still, he felt like he was supposed to give these people something, "Thank you," he says again awkwardly.

The maids leave, and Sam and Jack sit down knee to knee palms together. They chant the ancient chant together, a deep glutaral sound that pulls them together. Then they open eyes, and begin the meal. They share the tea from one cup, alternating sips. They put fruit and bites of pastry into each other's mouths. Jack snaps for the food over eagerly, turning what is supposed to be a serious ceremony into a game. He catches her fingers once or twice during the game, and when he does he flicks his tongue against her fingers for a few seconds before he lets her go.

It's definitely against the personal contact rules. It's also a promise of things to come.

They linger over the meal longer than necessary, and then they meditate together, foreheads touching, thoughts on the future.

Then they take turns washing up, and getting dressed behind the screen. Being that close to each other without clothes on does something almost disabling to them.

"Do you want to go on a walk?" Jack asks.

"Can you walk right now?" she asks with a suggestive glance.

"You talking about it isn't going to help," he says tersely.

"I'll go outside, and wait for you," she says with a giggle.

"No giggling, Captain," Jack says. They both freeze. "I don't know why I said that."

"I think you were supposed to say 'Major'," Sam corrects.

"That doesn't make any sense either."

He shrugs, but the conversation, the confusion, the memory, and some vague sense of fear have fixed his problem.

They don't touch on the walk, because they are in public, and the risk of getting turned in and losing each other is too great.

"I don't know how good the fishing is going to be, considering I don't see any water," Sam says, giggling again. She looks up at him wondering if he will reproach her for the laugh. He just grins.

Another couple giggles. They are further into the marriage ceremony, and are hanging off each other's arms.

"Sir, why did you wait so long to get married?" she asks.

He is silent.

"I'm sorry, you don't have to tell me," she says. Maybe she is pushing too hard.

"It's not that I am trying to keep something from you. It's just that I don't know. I don't…don't remember anything before I woke up in this cabin yesterday in these clothes with you knocking. What about you?" He asks looking around at the teenagers falling all over themselves. "I can't believe someone as beautiful as you wouldn't have been snapped up the second you were of age."

She blushes. "Not every man likes a woman with a mind," he says cautiously.

"You've got a mind too? I am a lucky man," he says. His pinky blushes her hand, and her stomach twists in fire and flame and she feels like there is an electric circuit rushing through her.

"I'm a physicist," she says. Another pause. They both know that she's telling them the truth, and they both know that there is no such things as that job.

-0-

Another meal. Sam has never been so grateful for the calming drugs. It's not that she is nervous about what she is going to say at the confession ceremony. It's more that she's worried that there will be nothing in her to say. They don't know much about their own histories, so how can they share them with others?

But the words spill out of her. "My mom died when I was fourteen," she tells him looking down at the empty plates before her. She knows that as soon as she looks up she is going to see that look. Pity. She doesn't think she'll be able to endure it.

"Really fighting not to touch your chin here," he says softly.

She looks up, and she is startled by the fact that it is not pity she sees there. She had never understood the difference between empathy and pity until the exact moment.

"My son died," he says.

"Your son?" she asks. She feels like she already knew this, but it's not possible. It doesn't make any sense.

He nods.

"One of your kids?" she asks because that would make a lot more sense.

"No. I only had one."

"How is that…even possible?" she asks.

"I don't know. But it is. I had one son, and his name was Charlie, and he died."

She knows that everything he is saying is the truth, not because of some truth serum that the two of them have been feed, but because she feels like she already knew that.

"It wasn't your fault," she says, because she knows that he has to hear this now, when he knows that she is incapable of lying.

He is staggered unable to breath with her comfort. "Thank you for not saying we'll have dozens of children to replace them."

"We will have dozens of children, but none of them will replace him," she says with a smile.

"It's strange. I remember Charlie when he was older. Like ten. I know that we send all of our children to the stars when they are newborns, but I also remember raising my son."

Raising. This is a word she shouldn't know. Yet, she understands exactly what it means. The moment shatters, and Jack begins sharing another of his painful memories.

-0-

She knows what the first kiss of a courting couple is supposed to be like. It's supposed to be soft and light, and not set your whole body on fire. You don't want to get people too excited with a promise that they are going to have to wait days more for fulfillment.

All of this knowledge has absolutely no effect on what their first kiss together actually is. It's the igniting of a fire. His hands start on her face as he pulls her to her with force that would almost be aggressive if she didn't want to grab him just as fiercely. The lips met, and open all in one breath. His tongue darts into her mouth the same second that his hands move to her back. He wants to pull her body close to him as much as he wants to kiss her.

She purrs into his mouth like a cat, and he forgets the fact that he hates cats. Right now, he does like cats. He loves cats. He wants a fucking house full of cats.

His hands roam almost to the edge of her bum, then stop, and go northward. He might be defying the intention of the physical contact prohibitions, but he sticks to the letter of them. He will not be losing this wife to "excessive passion" he loves her too much for that, and he's pretty sure that he's already reached the point where he couldn't live without her.

Her hands dance along his ribs, his chest, his broad shoulders. He didn't know that contact there, through a shirt, could do to them as it is.

They are only a few seconds into the kiss when he has to shift himself to avoid the tenderers part of his anatomy coming into contact with her. That isn't even about obeying the regulations, that's just about how he isn't going to have a chance to have sex with her tonight, and he doesn't want to get himself to excited for something he can't have for days.

The buzzer on his watch proclaims a minute has passed way too soon. They pull away from each other reluctantly, sitting on the floor on opposite sides of the hut not making eye contact for long minutes.

They don't talk about it, but really, what is there to say after something like that?


	5. Eunuch

"I refuse to participate, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c says.

"We _have_ to Teal'c. It is the only way to get Sam and Jack back."

"I assure you, Daniel, all of my organs function perfectly."

"I'm sure there is nothing wrong with your manhood, Teal'c. I'm just saying that you have to _say_ that there is."

"No," the man says pulling himself into the formation that Jack calls his "wall pose".

"Teal'c only people who are infertile get to wait on the married couples. Just pretend you so we can go knock on some doors for Sam and Jack. When we get home you can do something very manly."

Teal'c still stares at him.

"Me, I'm going to tell them that I am an eunuch," Daniel says.

"I do not see why you would embellish the story more than strictly necessary. You could report that you were extremely fertile until a very recent accident, while you were sparing, with nuclear weapons."

"No, see, I am comfortable enough in my masculinity to let people believe I am a eunuch. Now I might be all bashful about there was something wrong with my genitals. You know, over compensation, and what not," Daniel smirks at the slow change in his friend's continence.

"Tell them that I have been a eunuch for more years than you have drawn breath."

"At a boy!" Daniel say smacking the wall on his shoulder.


	6. Day 3

Whereas up until now Sam has been the person more in need of the daily draught of calming tea, now it is Jack's turn to worry.

They are talking about the future, and he can't help but fret about whether or not they aren't going to have the same future. What if they don't match? What are they going to do then? He's already way to attached not to be forever crushed by a command to disassociate himself from her. Yet he can't help but think that no one would ever want the same future as him.

All day he tries to plan, tries to think about how to ease her into it. What part of the future that he wants to share with her is she going to be most willing to accept? What is some easy thing that he could start her off with so that she won't even notice when he gets into the hard and scary parts of what he pictures in the future.

He doesn't really come up with much of a plan despite all of his efforts, so it's only natural that Sam would speak first, "I want to have triples the first time."

It's not exactly something that they could control, but he doesn't disagree, so he just nods his head.

"I mean, going through all the effort for only one or two children would be a bit of a disappointment, but four would be way too much weight to carry around."

"I wish we could keep our children," the comment flies out of his mouth completely unbidden. So much for his plans. The damned truth telling tea has done him in before he even had a chance. She's going to ask for a dissolving now, and he's going to be alone again. I guess the mystery of why he was unmarried at his age has finally come to light.

"Me too," she says almost confused by the confession, "I know that that's wrong. It's unpatriotic, but I still feel like I should be able to raise my own children."

The agreement with the most impossible thing on his list makes Jack bold, "I want to fight."

"Me?" she asks confused, but he can tell by her face that she's not as opposed to this idea as you would expect.

"No, I want to fight bad people."

Everything within her wants to say that she does not understand. She certainly ought not to understand, but she does understand him, perfectly. "It would be a pleasure to fight by your side, Sir."

"Sir, you used that word again."

"I know, it feels like the natural thing to call you. Maybe it's a nickname for Jack."

"Jack is already a nickname," he objects.

"Well, if you don't like it, then I won't call you it anymore. I can't even explain why it seems to describe you. I don't know what it means."

"I never said I didn't like it," he replies with a cocky grin which does things to her inside.

"After we have our first batch of babies I think we should take our time off near some lake. Then after the second batch we can find someone who needs defending."

"That's going to be hard. The Federation is at peace. The Federation has always been a peace." She tries to think of a word that means something other than peace, but she can't think of it, it must be because there isn't one.

"Sometimes I get the feeling that I should fight the Federation," he says. Damned truth serum. He looks at her alarmed wondering if she is going to push the panic button on the wall and turn him in.

"I feel like they are the reason that I can't remember everything that I want to," she agrees.

The talk of their future continues with a rather detailed, although frequently professed to be completely theoretical way to overthrow the Federation.

-0-

He begins to make her another cup of relaxing tea, but she puts her hand before the cup, "I really don't need it," she assures him, "You relax me way more than the drugs ever could."

She disappears behind the screen and comes out a few minutes later wearing the third day nightdress. Or really it should be called a night skirt, because it involved absolutely nothing over the waist.

He stares at her in appreciative slack jawed awe for longer than is customary. It is only when her own hands move to provide some relief to the excited nipples that he makes his move.

They conquer the third day task in a unique posture that sets Sam's heart on fire. He kneels on the ground, and she sits in front of him, reclining against his body. With his eyes ever focused on the view, he works her top over with his hands bringing them both to a state of almost miserable excitement.

At least, Jack brings their tortures to an end, but popping the calming gum in their mouths. It only takes a few seconds for the powerful drugs to turn both their bodies, and their minds into rather asexual things.

Still, even with all of this pushing against his interest he manages to give her one of his knee buckling kiss before they head off to their separate bunks.

Jack falls asleep in his stomach for the first time since he was a child, because it makes him feel a little closer to her.


	7. Math

"Daniel Jackson, I have done a calculation which estimates how long it will take to check every possible location of O'Neill and Major Carter."

"I really don't want to hear about it," Daniel mutters as he washes tea dishes.

"We intrude upon twenty couples per meal, and they eat three meals a day in this culture," his friend continues ignoring the protests and the eye roll which starts as he continues, "At this rate it would take 45 years to check each one of the establishments of this Federation."

"But the years on this planet are much shorter, aren't they?" Daniel asks hopefully.

"I was using Earth years in my calculation," the Jaffa replies.

"Okay, but still, they might be behind any door. Every time we knock on a door it could be them that answers."

"I think we need to abandon the chores of a servant and knock on doors between the meal times, using our servant garb as cover, but not caring food or completing any of the tasks of a servant."

It was riskier, but the forty-five years statistic has Daniel more than a little bit worried. "Alright, let's go," he says dropping the washed plate back into the dishwater, and drying his hands on a towel.


	8. Day 4

Jack isn't exactly pleased when Sam suggests that they take a walk early the next morning. She's dressed in her fourth day clothes which leave very little to the imagination. He knows what she will say if he lets her know what he is thinking though. She is going to say a lot of things about him being a jealous idiot, and her having eyes for no one but him.

He believes her, but he isn't exactly worried about _her_ eyes.

He ends up being pretty glad that they decided to go for a walk because, not far from there door is a teenager swollen as if she'd just swallowed a watermelon whole, clutching her stomach and writing on the ground.

Sam bends down next to her, "Where is your husband sweetheart?"

"He went back to our cabin to push the panic button. It's a long ways away. I'm worried the delivery servants are not going to make it in time."

"Fool, he should have knocked on our door and asked us to press the button," Jack declares.

"He didn't want to desorb anyone," the girl explains before being doubled over by another contraction.

"Jack, go press the button, and explain the situation in our cabin, and then you get back here. I don't really want to do this alone."

"You won't leave me?" the girl asks surprised by the kindness of a stranger.

"Of course not," Sam assures her. "So, how many babies can we expect?"

"Four," the girl says flinching with something almost like regret.

"First batch?" Sam asks.

"Yes," the girl whimpers. "There was supposed to be medicine. You're not supposed to feel anything when it comes. I wouldn't have agreed to be married if I knew it was going to be like this."

"I know, the medicine is coming."

"I'm going to be stretched!" the girl protests, "It's a natural childbirth! Primitive! Like an animal!"

"Yes, but soon your babies will be here!" Sam says trying to cheer her.

"Yes, here and gone thank goodness. Then I will have a whole six-month vacation. My husband and I have already agreed to spend it apart. He wants to go skiing, but I would much rather spend it on the beach."

Sam remembers, as if she was learning it for the first time, that many couples liked to spend their vacations apart. The bonding rituals were so firm and strong, because there was such a natural pull trying to part the couples. Often, by the sixth or seventh batch, the couples would have nothing more to do with each other than the one day of physical connection strictly required in the making of babies.

She swore that was never going to happen between her and Jack. They would never need drugs to make them want to come together.

Sam realizes with horror the reason why third trimester clothes are so revealing. "I see the head."

"No!" the poor teenager cries.

"You're going to have to push."

"Push! Ridiculous. Labor drugs were invented so that women never again had to push."

"Well we don't exactly have the labor drugs, so you're going to have to push sweetheart," she says.

Jack returns about then, and sits down silently at her side. The girls gives in and pushes. Before the medical servants arrive, two of the babies are writhing around in Jack's arms, and the girl has decided that she is going to do whatever she has to do in order to get out of more births. She'd donate her eggs, and work in the chemical mines. It will shorten her life a great deal, but there will never be a risk of having to go through agony like this again.

-0-

"I swear we won't be going on any walks when you are that close to labor," Jack informs her when they are back in their cabin alone.

"I wouldn't mind it as much as she did. Honestly, I'm sure it hurt, but…"

"…You've felt a lot of pain before, and you always bore up under it much better than her," he finishes with certainty.

"She didn't regret sending her children to the stars. I think she would have hated it if someone gave her the chance to keep them," Sam says.

Jack puts an arm around her, "Well, our children will be all the better for being loved so much."

Sam can't help but think they won't be much helped by being loved if no one is ever even able to tell them that they were.

-0-

After the noon meal they start throwing the compliments back and forth. A volley of at least ten compliments is required in order to pass this page in the courtship, but their volley continues until the servants bring in the sunset meal (he called her a national treasure, and she told him that he was the best man she'd ever known. The name of the meal is a bit of a misnomer this time, because it is served early tonight in order to give them plenty of time for the next task.

The meal is giant. Jack struggles to finish it, but Sam scolds him into it like she is dealing with a small child.

"Come now, I won't have our ability to have healthy children injured because their Daddy wouldn't eat all their vegetables," she teases. When the fails, she pretends her spoon is an airplane flying into his mouth. She gets specific, naming the airplane with numbers and letters and strange worlds that she is sure is nonsense, his eyes reflect a quiet acceptance as if he believes that these stranger words she is staying mean something.

Neither of them drink any of the tea meant to calm nerves or to increase attraction this night. They don't want to be calmed out of the coils of pleasant excitement that are winding through their bodies like electricity, and if they are any more bonded there is no way they are going to stop themselves from coming to completion, not matter how many drugs they use to stand in their way.

"I want to start with you," he pleads. She wonders if it is selfish that she was hoping he'd say that. She is pretty sure that she would not be able to do a good job with him, to make him truly happy, if she were distracted by her own desire.

There is a new bed today. The bunk beds were taken apart and moved out of the room when they were having their supper together, and the big comfortable satin bed was moved in their place. The servants had given them new day clothes for the marrow, but new night clothes had not been needed. They would not need anything to sleep in for the next couple of nights.

Sam retreats behind the barrier out of pure tradition, even though she would rather undress before the man she loves. She comes into the main room, and lies down on the bed feeling very exposed, until the moment that he is upon her.

He starts with the lips, which is a little illogical. It provers to her, in case there was any doubt, that this is not about the task before them, not about the complicated sacred process of making a baby, this is about bringing her pleasure.

His tongue is everywhere but where she most wants it, teasing her, promising her that he is going to draw out this thing which could be a quick operation as long as he can.

"Damn," he mutters a few minutes later when his tongue has made dozens of trips around, but never onto her pleading nub.

"What's wrong?" she asks.

"You're going to need to put the numbing stuff on me before I finish with you. Otherwise there is no way I'll be able to save the release for making the babies tomorrow."

He doesn't disappear behind the divider. If he had his way, he would throw the thing right out of the room never to be used again. There should be no division between people who are in love. He just pulls off his clothes right in front of her. He reaches over to their tea table, and squeezes some numbing lotion onto her hand.

It takes a few strokes of her hand before the numbing lotion takes effect, and those few strokes are the most delicious things he's ever felt.

When he's sure that his actions will not result in him not getting to be a father he returns his lips to her, but this time, unexpectedly, he places himself directly on her nub and sucks hard.

Women need no numbing in the night before, and she comes hard. Watching his effect on her has an intoxicating feeling to him, even with his physical sexuality turned off.

He would spend more time on the pure pleasure portion of this, but his first touch to the nip causes her to push him away. Too sensitive. He debates putting a touch of the numbing agent on and trying again, but he's not so sure that they somehow wouldn't know about the transgression, and he would never regret losing her. Besides, he feels somehow that she might be more sensitive than most to the subtle suggestion that she had man like characterizes.

So, he puts fingers inside. They are bare at first, because he is still not ready for the business part of the night. She clutches herself around him, and the feeling of the motion, even only on his finger, does something to him.

"Jack, finish with me. I want to give you your turn now," she pleads.

"Patience," he says.

"You're just trying to avoid the shot," she protests.

"Well, you couldn't exactly blame me if I were, could you?"

"No, I suppose not. We'll have forever for the playing. Please Jack," she says. He remembers the timer. The timer that they get to set the very minute that they are done here. Then in twelve hours, spent mostly in sleep, he will actually get a fulfillment of everything which will stay promise for him tonight.

"Okay," he says dipping his finger into the dilation fluid. He reaches inside her, and taps on the cervix. She flinches away at first, but after a few seconds it seems to cause her less discomfort. Before long she is thrusting toward him, and with each and every thrust his finger goes a tiny bit more inside of her. Deeper than he's ever gone into anyone. Before long his entire nail is with, and then he reaches over for the suppository.

He pushes the sleek pill like body deep inside of her. He thinks about it maturing eggs that will become his children soon, making a little blood bed for his children to grow in. Then massages her closes with yet another lotion.

He brings her the second portion of her feast, an iron rich meal .

She eats every bite, even though she is eating slower, and slower as the meal wears on. She doesn't complain like he did though, and he can't help but feel like he is a wimp when compared to her. Although, women are always the stronger ones, aren't they, when you are talking about pain tolerance or the ability to bare emotions?

Then she puts the empty tray aside, and pushes him on his back in a way that is just dominate enough to do something special to his insides.

He looks away as she gives him the shot, and that along with the numbing agent make the whole thing a lot more bearable than a shot in the balls sounds like it would be.

"I wish I could use my tongue," she says bemoaning the lotion which must stay intact if she is ever going to be a mother.

"Tomorrow," he moans.

She grins at that, and then she covers her hands in lotion so as to put more on for every bit she takes off.

"It's amazing what these drugs can do. From the laymen point of view it just looks like all the growth that normally goes into the penis moves to the testicles, but it's actually a lot more complicated than that…"

"Stop the technobabble, and do something about it!" he grunts in frustration.

Her hands start moving over his swollen testicles, and his unnaturally limp manhood. Something in her fights against the training she has received, and is insulted by the fact that he does not get hard for her. She has to remind herself more than once that it's only natural, that it's the only way things can be, that it's the way thing have always been.

Besides, there is no doubt that he is attracted to her, and enjoying what is happening when she looks at his face. It is a compliment, she finally realizes, that he can feel things about her without having the physical sensations that are normally required. It makes what they are doing more spiritual than bestial.

She keeps swelling his balls with the fascination of a scientist marveling at how large they are getting until he finally chokes out, "I can't take any more."

Then she applies one last layer of numbing agent, to both of them without embarrassment. She knows she could not wait all the hours that are required to make proper healthy children without it.

"I wanted to do that to you earlier, just so I could touch you more."

"I'm not objecting to that now," she tells him.

"I want the timer to begin," he pleads.

So she starts it, and then she curls up next to him feeling a deep vibration within her, wishing sleep would come to speed the hours between now and their joining away.

They both realize at the same moment that precious little sleep is going to happen for either of them tonight. They lay in each other's arms for hours before pure exhaustion takes them, only to have them awoken by the untimely knock on the door the next morning.


	9. Rescue

Yet another couple that wasn't Sam and Jack. A couple that was far younger than them, but every bit as brainwashed and full of drugs as his friends were, Daniel thinks glumly.

"We should do something about this, this whole system after we get them back safe and sound."

"I do not believe that would be wise," Teal'c replies.

"So, you agree with their strategy of conquering the universe by forcing teenagers to bred for them like rabbits?" Daniel asks staring at his friend in horror.

"That is incorrect," Teal'c says.

"Then why wouldn't we do something to stop it?"

"I think it is wisest to engage in only one unwinnable battle at a time. Until we have eliminated the blight of the Gou'd from the galaxy, I do not think it would be wise to take on another enemy of that magnitude."

"I suppose these guys are not as bad as the Gou'uld," Daniel says watching a pair of teenagers, close to becoming parents, giggling next to them.

"Indeed. They people wo are part of this system appear to be quiet happy."

"It's still wrong," Daniel says.

"Someday, perhaps, we will have the privilege of fighting all the battles which are not ours," Teal'c says.

"I've really become quite American, extending the Monroe document to the stars," Daniel mutters to himself.

Teal'c doesn't understand what his friend is saying, but that's not the first time he's been confused by a comment that his Earth companions has made, so he does what he always does when he's confused. Nods his head.

"I guess we'll just get Sam and Jack out, and try to forget about what's happing," Daniel says putting up his hand to knock on yet another door. Hoping that his friends are inside. Hoping that whoever answers puts clothes on first. Hoping that they aren't interrupting teenagers having sex.

"We shall find them soon," Teal'c encourages his friend.


	10. Day 5

"We're not dressed yet, give us a minute," Jack calls to the door. He and Sam dart together behind the screen, Sam being wise enough to pick up Jack's clothes on the way. They are only about half dressed before the servants enter without further invite. Jack finds himself very annoyed by the action, but he also thinks he's unjustified to be so. This is the way that things have always been done. It's the proper, and the servants are used to seeing the newly married in all states of undress. The shame he feels about it is the weird part.

The couple finish dressing while the table is set with another feast, and another table is carefully laid with shots, and medical instruments, all in the proper order.

Then the servants put their fifth day afternoon clothing behind the patrician that the couple has recently vacated.

"Enjoy," one of the servants says smirking as the other shoves him out of the room before her.

Jack glances at the timer, "Nearly an hour," he says. Even though they are both trying to eat the meal as quickly as possible so that they can get on to more interesting things, it takes them the better part of the hour to eat the enormous amounts of food before them.

"I'm kind of looking forward the appetite that is going to come with the pregnancy," Sam mutters as she chokes down the last bite.

Then the meditate forehead to forehead, although both are quiet often turning to look at how many minutes are left on the clock.

When the buzzer rings they stand, and both offer their first hope together. Jack is telling her that he hopes their babies have blue eyes. Sam declares that she hopes her babies are as good as him. Then they reach over to each other, and strip off a layer of clothing.

Jack still can't make out any more than the shape of a head under her heavy veils, and he has enough ridiculous coats that you would think his shoulders were misshapen.

She rushes on to tell him that she hopes she can be near him forever. He hopes that she is a good fisherman.

This time he can make the color difference between her fair hair, and fairer skin. He looks a little less like a humpback.

She hopes that they will never take a vacation apart from one another. He hopes they'll always be able to wake up wrapped in each other's arms.

He can see the blueness of her eyes beyond the veil now, and his body is showing its true shape beneath the marriage clothing. Their bodies are coursing with electricity already.

He tells her that he loves her more than he thought it was possible to love another human being. It's not a hope, but she does not give a shit. She tells him that he makes her feel safe.

The last veil is lifted off her face. It was only an hour ago that she put on the veils. He woke up tangled next to her naked body, so her face should not have made him gasp as if it were the most beautiful thing in the world, but it does. He shrugs the last coat off his shoulders leaving nothing but a vest, and leaving his arms free. She feels like she is seeing his muscles for the first time, although she knows that she's seen them often enough before.

"I hope we have lots of children," Sam offers the hope that is so traditional it would almost not be a wedding if one of the couple didn't say it. Her brain is too fried right now for something more profound. She reaches forward to unzip the vest slowly, playing with his chest hairs on the way.

"I hope we get to keep them all," he returns her traditional hope with one that is definitely not so, pulling the dress over her head. Underneath the dress is a bra that doesn't seem to be particularly practical, a pair of underwear which hides pretty much nothing, and some strange bow meant to highlight the belly that will very soon be full of babies.

She reaches for his belt, and it takes all of his strength to stop her, to remind her that she is supposed to say something first. "I hope….I hope we remember," and the belt is pulled off so quick that it hurts him. Not that he's complaining.

"I hope we won't regret remembering," he says going for the bra first. It's a bit of a wrestling match for him, "I've never dealt with one like this before," he objects. Her fingers go to help them, but it's quite clear that she is no more familiar with the clasp than he, and their fingers are tripping over each other more than doing anything else. Finally, it falls to the floor.

"I hope some of our children grow up to be scientists," she says jerking the loosely fitting pants down.

"I hope we get to teach them to walk," he replies pulling the panties down, and leaving the bow for last.

"I hope I love you until the day I die," she says making his underwear join the pants on a pool on the floor.

"I hope I die first," he says unwrapping her like a present.

The wrestle each other into the bed, fighting over who gets to do what first.

His lips remove the numbing lotion from her, and work her into a state of eager throbbing excitement.

Then she pushes him onto his back and returns the flavor. The shot has worn off now, and his excitement is allowed to show in the eager growth of his member.

He'd meant to play around and tease like he had the day before, but the drugs from breakfast have overtaken his mind, and all he can think of is the final act, as quickly as possible, without delay, he needs to be inside of her.

It's like a finely choreographed dance they've been practicing for years, and they have been, if only in their own minds. Never in the history of the universe have there been two people who moved together in such perfect harmony.

Somehow, Jack's brain on sex manages to overcome part of the programing. It doesn't help him though, but only causes him terror. When her orgasm comes, an endless silent thing he becomes alarmed. He tries to stop what he's doing, feeling that anyone with eyes rolled back that far in their heads is not quiet consenting. The drugs, and her convulsing insides hold him captive, and a few seconds later he's over the edge himself.

That scares him just as much. The orgasm seems normal for the first few pulses, but when the liquid keeps draining out of his swollen balls for hundreds of pulses more than he's used to feeling terror squeezes his heart.

"Sam," he pleads in his terror.

"I know," she says mostly come to from her own raptures, "Let it come Jack. Fill me with babies."

The words return him to the programing, and he complies, emptying more into her than all of the previous ejaculations he's had in his life combined.

-0-

He must have lost consciousness sometime during his activities, because the next thing he knows she's cuddled into his side.

The programing again in his head, giving him instructions. He moves to stand up, and she objects the loss of content with him with a murmur. "We have to check and make sure that the babies took," he whispers.

The ultrasound wand is shaped like a penis, and this offends him for some reason that he cannot easily explain. He knows that that is the only shape these things ever come in, but he still feels as if it is wrong. Sam apparently feels the same way about it based on the way she looks away from him as he inserts it.

The sensors activate. "Triplets," he tells her.

She's crying and grinning. She knows that she shouldn't be surprised, that pregnancy is inevitable the way things are done, but she still feels like she didn't see this coming. She feels like she's been waiting a really long time to have his babies, and that doing so is going to be a dream come true.

He grins at her, but there is something sad under her eyes.

She touches his arm asking him a question without asking it, because with Jack O'Neill your communication has to be non-verbal.

"I'm just trying not to get too attached. They won't be ours for long you know," he says.

She pictures her children as they will be in a few short months. Newborns hooked to machines as they spiral through space under the care of a couple of nurses. Never being held. Never being loved. Getting all of their information from computer programs, and starting to breed when they were barely grown so that he ships would be full by the time it landed. So, the new planet they were going to could be colonized. So, the Federation could grow…

"We won't give them up," she tells him firmly.

"We don't have a choice."

"We'll run away!" she declares.

He snorts at the suggestion, "And just how do you propose that we do that?" he asks.

"I don't know," she confesses, "I feel like I used to know. A long time ago. Like maybe if I could just get my head clear of all of that crap they give us than I could know again."

"We could stop taking it," he says.

"The servants would report it," she reminds him.

"Not if we poured it down the drain," he goes over to the sink, and makes eye contact with her before he begins, making sure that this is really want she wants to do. She nods, and the tea disappears.

"I know that we aren't going to take anything for ourselves, but I am still going to take the things for the babies, right? I don't want them to be affected by our decision."

"Of course," he says, but he's not really sure that he means it. He wants to shield the babies from the medicine as much as he wants to shield her from it, but he hides that idea from her. After all, the medicine is the only reason that they have the babies to begin with.

She lays down, and he holds the growth machine over her belly for the recommended minutes. She nibbles on food the whole time. Then they put on their clothes and begin walking toward the city center for their babies' first appointment.

-0-

She throws up during the ultrasound. The unemotional doctor shoots her with extra hormone shots which make her feel worse, and then hands her a lollypop. She's so insulted she almost doesn't take it. Then Jack says he'll have it if she doesn't, and she pops it into her mouth just to get revenge on him. After all, he is the reason she's so sick right now. She's glad she does, because as soon as the pop is in her mouth her nausea dissipates.

"All three of the infants are viable," the doctor says in a monotone voice. He spends his days checking on thousands of couples, most of whom don't have an emotional attachment to their babies, but Sam still thinks he could put a bit more excitement into the news.

"I'm going to attach the external nourishment now," he says puncturing her stomach with a needle and rigging the bag that reminds of her an IV. Sam knows that pregnancies speed is limited by the mother's metabolism, and this is a way around it, but she still feels like there is something wrong with what is happening. "This doesn't give you an excuse to eat less. The Federation needs to consume a great many calories for the next couple of months. You are growing the future of our nation within you," the doctor says seriously. Sam's stomach turns when she thinks about how most of the women he works with would be more motivated by that speech than the knowledge that their own flesh and blood is inside of them, and needs her.

Jack holds her hand as they leave the Doctor's office. "Just think, what you've gone though is already a whole month of pregnancy."

She knows that he's telling her the truth, even though it doesn't make sense. Everywhere pregnancy is the same right? The artificial speed of these pregnancies is the only way they can happen. It takes a few hours to get to the point where the babies heart beats. Then, the complexity of the cellular growth slows the process down. It takes almost a month to reach the stage where the sickness leaves your stomach, and then a month and a half before the babies are big enough that emergency could cause them to live on their own. Then, unavoidably, the last three months of pregnancy where brains are growing and fat is accumulating must be suffered through at old fashioned turtle speed. No matter how much food you provide the babies with the uncomfortable end of pregnancy can only happen at the speed it happens.

They are almost back to their cabin when they see a sight which will haunt their nightmares for years to come. It's a woman clinging tightly to the twins in her arms, "No, let me keep one of them please! I've given you ten children! Ten children to the Federation. Why can't I keep just one?"

"That isn't the way it works," the servant says seeming to be confused by her emotional reaction.

"No, don't take my babies away!" the woman screams.

Not wanting to attract attention which may harm their chances of getting away later Sam and Jack walk past the poor women without displaying a single emotion on their faces. It's only when they are safely alone in the privacy of their cabin that Sam breaks down into sobs that are just as real as the bereft woman's.

"It's okay," Jack assures her.

"No, it's not! They are going to take my babies from me!" Sam wails.

"Over my dead body," Jack declares in a voice that is so firm she can't doubt it.

She just really hopes that it doesn't come down to that.


	11. Too Late

"You know that it's the sixth day since they went missing," Daniel observes.

"Indeed," Teal'c says.

"So, we're really too late. I mean, unless Sam and Jack did something to rescue themselves they're already married, and she's already pregnant, probably with a litter. I mean, assuming that the powers that be wanted them to mate with each other, which to be frank is what I'm hoping for. I would hate to think that Sam and Jack are making babies with strangers."

"It is never too late as long as they draw breath," Teal'c corrects.

"Well, I mean yeah, but…If they come home now all brain washed and pregnant…" Daniel says.

"They have made full recoveries from things that were far less pleasant than this planet. They are formidable warriors, resilient, and capable of healing."

The two of them walk in silence for a little longer, Daniel knowing that Teal'c really doesn't want to talk about it, but filled with the urge to say the things that are on his mind. To unburden himself to the best friend he has, baring those captured in enemy territory. "You realize that when we find them, they will probably not want to come with us."

"I am aware. I requested some sedative from Doctor Fraiser for just such a purpose. I was not certain you could manage to carry one of them to the gate if they offered resistance, and I could not managed two warriors as formidable as they were if they did not wish to come with me."

"Sedative?" Daniel asks.

"Do not fear. I requested sedative which will not harm the babies which Major Carter is no doubt carrying."

"Good, so long as we have a plan," Daniel says. Then they walk along in silence, but Daniel's mind is not at rest. He is still fretting about the fact that his friends might never forgive him for taking them from this place. That even when they are back to the base, and cleared of all the drugs they might wish that he had just left them alone.

After you have spend four years being in love with someone that you can't have, a society that wants you to have sex with that person constantly has got to sound pretty good.


	12. Day 12

Twenty-four hours without drugs in their system, and her mind already feels clear. There was a part of her that was worried that without the drugs she wouldn't love him as much, or much worse his love for her would fade.

She need not have worried. He is too emptied from process of making babies for a repeat of their lovemaking, but they have still spent most of the time in each other's arms. More companionable silence than talking. Comfortable, happy, content.

She draws a shape on his back. A pyramid with a circle on top. His muscles go tight underneath her fingers, "What does that mean?" he asks her.

"I don't think it means anything," she says lazily.

"It does. It means…home. At least I think it does. Draw the rest of it. The rest of the things that mean home," he commands.

She shrugs her shoulders.

"I am remembering things," he tells her, "but they don't make a lot of sense. I remember your father, I think, only he's a snake."

"He has a snake," she corrects.

"Like a pet one?" he asks still confused.

She shrugs her shoulders having reached the end of her knowledge on the subject.

"I remember someone too," she says.

"The one with the glasses?" he asks.

The memory comes to her with the words, "Yes, him too! But I was talking about the one with the forehead arch, and the eyebrow!"

"Yes," Jack nods in agreement, "but you know who we really need?"

"The long white coat and the big heals," Sam agrees.

"I would feel a lot better if she was here to tell us that our babies were going to be okay."

"The doctor told us that they were fine," she argues.

"I know, but I don't really trust him," he admits.

"Jack, what if we remember everything, and we still can't figure out a way to get out of this? What if remembering just makes it worse?"

He takes a couple of deep breaths to banish the horrible thought before he answers her, "I remember enough about you, my dear Samantha, to know that when you are yourself you can figure out a way to get out of just about anything."

"You're going to have to figure a pretty intense case of pregnancy brain into that equation," she warns.

"All I am hearing is increased motivation," he retorts.


	13. Refuges

"This is not within our mission parameters," Teal'c says unemotionally.

"They need our help," Daniel retorts chivalrously taking a bag from one of the women walking next to him, and then glaring at his friend until he takes the hint. Teal'c takes two bags from women, because really, he isn't going to be shown up by the archeologist.

"Our mission was to provide help to Sam and Jack," Teal'c says.

"They aren't mutually exclusive you know. Helping a couple of pregnant refuges who want to escape an oppressive system doesn't meant that we aren't going to be right back to looking for Sam and Jack."

"It may cause the Federation to guard their breeding stock more heavily," Teal'c argues.

The woman next to him, almost relieved to be called breeding stock as opposed to the fake and high-sounding names she's heard most of her life retorts, "There aren't enough guards. The population of people fertile enough to be in the marriage huts is much larger than the population of non-fertile people to serve them, ever since they developed the technology which allows women to produce more eggs after age causes them to run out. They barely have enough people to serve as doctors and servants, they could never spare any as guards."

"I retract my objections, these females prove to be valuable sources of intel," Teal'c replies.

"That's right," the woman beside him says with a proud tilt of her head. It's the first time in her life that someone has valued her for something besides her uterus.


	14. Day 7

"We have to get to gate," he announces as they hold each other in the afterglow of love.

"Yes! But…how?" she asks.

"I don't know. It's big and round and filled with water," he tells her, hoping that it will help.

"Not water," she says shaking her head, "It's an event horizon."

"How do you go about locating and event horizon?" he asks.

"Well, I think we are going to have to start off by increasing the distance we cover during each of our walks," she replies.

"I'll do it by myself. I don't you walking that far in your condition."

"Walking is very good for pregnancy; besides they would get suspicious pretty fast if a man started walking far from the cabins by himself. They aren't going to think anything is strange if it's a couple. There isn't much to do around here apart from long walks anyway."

"All right, but we're going to have to bring lots of snacks," he observes. It's meant to be a joke, some throwback to something they can almost, but not quiet remember. It falls a little flat though, because the pregnancy has left her eating almost contently, and it's a little too close to him calling her fat for her taste.

"Sorry," he says throwing up her hands.

She knows she's being a little bit irrational, and she knows that pregnancy hormones are to blame. She's happy about that. Happy too about the nausea that wakes her every morning before she can take one of those little pops in her mouth and make it go away. She's happy about the fact that her belly is already starting to swell, and that she can't really blame it on her children's mass yet.

She likes every part of pregnancy, even the parts that she knows she is supposed to dread and hate.

"Dollar for your thoughts," he says.

She giggles at the twist of a cliché.

"What? Your thoughts are worth at least a hundred times more valuable than a normal person's," he defends.

"I was just thinking about how much I like being a pregnant bitch," she retorts.

He giggles, "Will I incur your rather if I agree with you?"

"No," she says kissing him, "I really like being pregnant with your babies." Which was probably just as well, because if they didn't find a way out of this it was going to be half of her life, right there. Growing big under the weight of his children.

"Well, let's go find the gate," he says. He likes her being pregnant with his babies too, but he isn't about to tell her that. He knows that she is meant for bigger things, and when she remembers them, whatever they are, he doesn't want her to have any memory of him accepting the baring of his children as an acceptable life calling for her.


	15. The Strong Stuff

Janet plops down next to Daniel in the mess hall. He pushes his coffee toward her, which is quiet the concession considering how little sleep that he's been getting lately while trying to rescue Sam and Jack. She takes it gratefully, swallowing down his creamed drink knowing it will be cold enough not to burn her tongue. The strong black stuff is coming, as soon as it cools.

"How is it coming with the women from the Federation?" he asks.

"Why on Earth would anyone attach an external pouch to a woman's body so she can grow a child slightly faster? It doesn't even cut off half the pregnancy, and the risk to the infant! Oh, I'm sorry not infant, because they have those poor brainwashed people breeding litters full of children. It will be a miracle if I can get all those poor women through the rest of their pregnancy without any premature births. It's inhumane!"

"I'm just glad that some of them overcame their programing. These people have been part of the Federation ever since birth, and if they were able to overcome it than it means that Sam and Jack…"

Janet shakes her head, "No, I'm sorry. These women didn't stop believing in the stories by themselves. They were all told by someone, a friend, a mother, a husband, to stop drinking the teas. Even with that it took weeks for the drugs to leave their systems."

"What makes you think the same thing won't happen to Sam and Jack?" Daniel asks worriedly.

"Well, last time I checked they didn't have family among the Federation. Besides, the amount of people deflecting is so small compared to the numbers of people who just willingly go about…" she sighs. "It breaks my heart that we're not even going to try to save them all."

"I did argue for it," Daniel points out.

She smiles faintly, "Yes, well that is a very Jackson thing to do."

"Doctor Fraizer, you're needed in the infirmary," the intercom says.

"Probably another fetal heartbeat in distress," she says grabbing the apple off her plate while leaving the rest of her lunch to run down the hallway in her heals.

She left her coffee behind, so Daniel takes it and drinks it, just in case drinking the hard stuff is what made the doctor so strong.


	16. Day 8

"Sam, I don't think we're even from the Federation," Jack observes as they take one of their long and strategic walks across the countryside.

"Don't be ridiculous! We are all of the Federation. There is nothing else, is there?" Her voice starts out very confident, but by the end of the sentence the confidence has faded away to nothing.

"I think we used to go through the Stargate and save people."

"Save them from what?"

"From things exactly like this!" he says in anger.

She looks so taken aback that he is worried that he scared her. He is about to apologize to her when she agrees with him, "So how are we going to stop it?"

"We're not. We're going to get the hell out of here, and keep our babies safe."

"Then. We're going to stop it," she says firmly.

"Right, we'll start working on that plan soon, but first we really do have to figure out how to get out of there."

Just then they come over and hill, and the Stargate is before them. They had expected guards, or at least a sort of commercial terminal around it. After all, they must have come through the Stargate to get to this planet. It's deserted though.

They both take off in a run.

"Wait," she says putting a hand on his forearm and stopping him short.

"Too easy?" he asks.

"We need an iris code."

"What the hell is that?"

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure if we don't have one we are going to die."

"Well, what are we going to do then?" he asks.

"I don't know, but I do know that we know where the gate is now, and so we're one step closer than we were yesterday."

"Right. We'll think of a plan," Jack says. He's already starting to worry that the best plan they'll have is him punching anyone who comes to take his newborns away from him. It's not a good plan, to be sure, but he does have anger on his side.


	17. Chapter 17

There is a lot of crying in the infirmary, which isn't a huge surprise since one of the refuges gave birth to her quadruplets the day before. It's just that not all the crying is newborn. Daniel walks in with his sympathetic half smile to see if he can do anything to calm her down.

"My babies!" she cries.

He's a little confused, so he checks his counting, "They're all here. All four of them," he tells her.

"You don't understand!" she accuses.

But he does. "Not your first pregnancy?"

"Twelve children. I've given twelve children up! I should have run away years ago, and this never would have happened."

"I know, but you saved these four. Besides, we wouldn't have been by the gate waiting for you years ago, and so it might not have turned out so well."

"My wife wouldn't come with me. She's back on that planet with our twins right now. She'll give them away just like she's given away others. She'll keep sipping that damned mind control tea, and when they give her another husband she won't even remember that he wasn't her first," a man complains barely controlling himself enough not to add to the wailing.

"It didn't hurt so much, back when I was drinking the tea," the woman says, "Sometimes I almost regret giving that stuff up."

"Things will get better, and having your freedom is very important," Daniel says all the while debating in the back of his head whether or not he should suggest sedative for their hysterical guests. Morally no, practically yes, he decides which doesn't help him at all.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," he says standing, and leaving the room. It's clear that he has no way to comfort these people.

"We've got to get them home," Daniel says sickened by the sight in front of him. He'd thought it was hard to let Shifu go off, and he wasn't even his flesh and blood. He couldn't imagine having given dozens of children to the cause, and only to late realize the horror of the action. No matter how well cared for the children were on the spaceship going to other planets, it was not their home.


	18. Day 9

The plan burst upon him like it came from something other than his own mind. He hopes that is the way ideas always come to him. "We need to hide around the gate until they come for us."

"Who, Sir?" she asks. 'Sir', and 'Colonel' are things which come to her mouth more and more as they get farther and farther away from the tea.

"Our team."

"What if they don't come?"

"They always come."

"What if they don't? We can't just go by the gate and wait for someone to help us. The servants bring us food and nourishment for the babies every day."

"We'll catch food. I'm pretty sure I have a fair amount of survivalist training under my belt. I'll take care of it."

"Sir, you've seen the way I'm going through food with the rapidly growing babies. If it were just me I'd follow you anywhere, but I have the babies to think about. I don't think we should go without supplies."

"Well, then we're just going to have to get supplies."

"You say that like it's easy. Besides, I still think waiting by the gate is foolish. They're going to know we're rebelling if we get caught."

"We won't get caught."

"We could be, and even if we're not how do we know that someone is coming for us. I'm sure they would be coming for us if they could be, but I'm not sure they even know where we are."

He ponders her words, because they do seem to have an element of truth to them. "Look, if we can just get by the gate at least we're going to be free, and then we can figure out another place to gate. A place where we won't go smash against the windshield like bugs, but where we can still get home. Or at least away from here."

"Okay, maybe if we had supplies."

He pauses.

"You have a plan to share Colonel?" she asks.

"It's not very nice."

"Neither is taking away somebody's babies," she points out.

"The servants have carts with lots of supplies on them."

She ponders, "Yeah, they serve enough people that there are weeks' worth. It's not like they're just going to give them to us, and I'm not sure how well I can run while pregnant and with an IV bag," she points out.

"Right, that's where the not so nice part comes in. We're going to have to render them unconscious."

"Oh," she says.

"Look, we can wait until we have a better plan."

"No, I want to get free," she says.

"Okay, let's get down to the logistics of it then," he says.

-0-

It was way too easy. Jack would have felt a whole lot better about it if they had evaded him, or fought back. No, the door opened, and he and Sam each took out a servant with their elbow. There was a little blood, but he was pretty sure there was no serious injury. He tosses the steaming tea pots on the ground causing an impressive rise of gas.

"I hope that's not enough to make us forget," she says.

"Damn!" he exclaims pushing the cart before him. Even though she claimed not to be able to move fast with the tubes for the babies attached to her she makes good time, keeping pace with him. She's a well-trained soldier he remembers.

"Got any gate addresses?" he asks as they walk.

"Depends. Do we know how many symbols we need?"

"How many do you have?"

"Three."

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to cut it. Don't worry, we'll remember."

"That's what's got me worried, Sir. We've been off the tea for a long time. If it is an organic molecule it should be completely worked out of our system by now. It's possible we aren't going to get back any more memories than we have."

He doesn't really like that dismal thought. "Well, if that's the case, we'll just have to keep stealing from servants until the babies are born. We'll build a cabin, and fish, and we'll teach our babies how to make little traps for squirrels."

"Squirrels?"

"Yeah, my Grandpa said they were very good eating. I never tried them myself because I was only offered them once, and I was four years old and a chicken, but if I had it to do over again."

"You'd eat squirrel?" she asks.

He nods.

"Actually, I'm hungry enough to eat squirrel," she says.

"Start with the powerbar," he says handing her one off the cart.


	19. Chapter 10

"Sir, I'm pretty sure I remember a whole address," she says pointing to the one she's drawn in the dirt.

"See, we are still getting memories back. That's Earth address though, so it's not going to do us a whole lot of good," he says making a splatting sound.

"I know, but I think we should still dial it, though not go through."

"Why?" he asks.

"Well, to see if it works first of all, and because….because maybe it's a way to communicate."

"I guess it wouldn't hurt," he shrugs, "Although I suspect that you're just trying to avoid helping with the cabin."

She giggles at that, "Well, first of all, I'm still not convinced that whatever you're doing with those twigs is going to result in a cabin. Second of all, I'm hoping we're not going to be here long enough to need a cabin. Third of all, I'm pregnant so you can't expect me to work," she says the last one with an exaggerated flutter of the eyelids that makes him giggle.

"All right, dial up the gate, and I'll go back to trying to get small animals with bows and arrow," Jack says bitterly. He's still angry about the fact that the only water near the gate is a tiny stream. It's enough to get water to drink out of, but it's way too small for fish.

They move down the hill toward the gate with soldiery moves that feel too natural for them to doubt. There are even hand motions they understand without even having to think about them. Sam makes a connection, and waits breathlessly.

"Honey, I think we've got to call it," he says softly after a few minutes have passed.

She nods, letting the wormhole disintegrate.

"If I could just find something radioactive."

"Sounds like a great idea with tiny babies in your stomach," he quips.

"We could throw it through the Stargate, and they could sense it."

"They still won't know it was us, or where we were," she says.

"No, but at least it would feel like a message."

"Honey, why don't you come help me with house?" he asks softly.

"I'm not giving up."

"I'm not asking you to. I just think this is going to take some time, and while we are working on this, it would be nice to have some shelter."

"All right, but I'm designing it."

"I've already designed it."

"I'm more qualified."

"In most things, true, but how many buildings have you constructed?"

"Like you've built a building?" she challenges.

He raises her eyebrows.

"You don't even have all of your memories."

"Yet I do remember my Grandpa and I building a shed out in the back yard."

"This isn't a shed."

"No, there is definitely a lack of pre-cut boards, but I also made a nice lean-to when I was in the boy scouts."

She raises an eyebrow at him.

"You don't think I'm boy scout material?"

"You don't seem like you'd do great in the conforming department."

"It was the '60's conforming was not expected."


	20. Hope

"I know it was them," Daniel declares.

"We all want to believe that it was them who made contact with the gate," The General says with a sigh. "I don't see how it can help us much. If it was them, I'm just glad they didn't try to come through."

"That's actually my primary concern. It is why I am so desperate to work quickly on this. We don't know exactly how their memory has been compromised. If we wait they could try again, and walk through to their death."

"What exactly do you want to do?" The General says. "We've been trying to find them for a week now."

"Yes, but if it was dialing the gate then it stands to reason that they are still by the gate. We're not going to have to knock on millions of doors, we are just going to have to go through a few hundred Stargates. If we put all the resources of the Stargate on it, it would not take much time."

The General nods his head, "It's a plan," he says.

"O'Neill and Major Carter may have moved away from the gate since attempting contact," Teal'c tells Daniel as they walk to the gate room.

"I know."

"The gate could have been dialed by anyone in the galaxy," Teal'c continues.

"I know."

"They could attempt to evade the teams which seek to rescue them," Teal'c continues.

"I know we're just about as screwed as we were yesterday, Teal'c,' Daniel says in exasperation.

"Very well," Teal'c replies.

Like the General says it's a plan, even if it wasn't a great one. It took all four of them to make a great plan, and half of them were missing right now.


	21. Day 11

"It's them," Jack says staring with eagerness at the people who have just walked through the gate.

"I don't know, I don't recognize any of them," Sam hedges.

"It doesn't matter. Look at their clothes," Jack replies.

She realizes he's right. She remembers wearing those clothes, and she remembers them being worn by her friends. "We're here!" she announces coming out of the bushes and getting guns trained on her.

Jack is in front of her before they lower the weapons, although it only takes a second.

"Good to see you, Colonel," Barnes says warmly, although Jack still can't place him.

"Nicer to see you when you're not pointing weapons at my wife," he retorts.

"How much do you remember?" Barnes asks.

"Enough to know you can get us home," Sam says.

"If he has the secret code to the iris. Do you?" Jack asks.

"Yes, sir," Barnes replies.

"And the one with the coat and the heals, she'll help us?" Sam pleads.

"Doctor Fraiser, yes, I'm sure she's looking forward to having you back," Ryan smiles

"Jack, the cart," Sam reminds him.

SG-6 chuckles as Jack runs off like a hen picked husband.

"You managed to collect luggage," Barnes teases.

"Just some food, and external nourishment for the babies," she says patting the pack currently attached to her stomach.

"I'm sorry we couldn't rescue you in time," Brooks says seriously.

"I don't understand. You came long before the babies are born, they won't take our children now," she says a bit confused.

In Brook's mind, there would be no babies if he'd made it in time.

"Dial 'er up!" Jack explains pushing the cart before him as he goes back to the team.


	22. Infirmary

"Colonel, if you'll come this way I can get you checked out," Janet says when the two enter the infirmary.

"I'll be staying with Sam," he says in a way that clearly shows it's beyond argument.

"Okay, we'll get her checked out first, and then you," Janet says with a smile.

"I'm having triplets," Sam says.

Janet misses the excitement on her face, and says, "I'm sorry."

"I'm not," Sam says firmly with eyes practically flashing.

"I'm sorry. I just assumed. You were captured. I'm glad that you are excited about the consequences. I just hope that you don't change your mind when the stuff they drugged you with starts to wear off."

"We stopped taking it days ago," Jack says with his arms crossed, "The only reason we escaped that place is because we wanted to keep our kids. We wanted that even when we were full of the drugs, and let me assure you that's not from the drugs. They are meant to have the opposite effect actually."

"So," Janet says pulling a machine over, who would have thought that she'd be spending this much of her time giving prenatal care? "Did you leave before or after they gave the babies rapid growth?"

"After," Sam admits, "But I was supposed to go in for another treatment after a week. That would be…"

"Tomorrow," Jack says.

"That's good," Janet says with a smile, "That means the rapid growth is already starting to slow down. Before you know, it we'll be dealing with a regular pregnancy. It will give us a lot less chance of problems later on in the pregnancy, of course, multiple pregnancies are always a little risky."

Sam grabs her friend's arm, "Janet, are they safer back there? Maybe we should go back until after they are born, and then we can escape again."

Janet's heart is pulled by her friend's insane plan. Sam definitely a mom now. It's not from the tea. You can't manufacture love like that. "We're going to make sure these babies are fine, Sam."

Jack has moved from the wall, and is rubbing the back of her hand with his middle two fingers. "Sir, do you remember the frat rules?" Janet asks.

He tilts his head.

"Regulations prohibit you and Major Carter from having a relationship," she begins.

He cuts her off, "I don't give a shit."

"Sir, you are still under the effect of the drugs. I won't know how much until I get a blood sample, but I would hate it if you made a life decision that you regretted once the medicine was clear of your system."

"I'm not leaving her," he says firmly again.

"I would hope that she doesn't regret it either," Janet whispers.

With that Jack pulls his hand back like it has been burned. He remembers that he is her commanding officer. She shouldn't be having his babies. He loved her yes, but that didn't matter. She should never be put in this position.

"Jack," she says reaching out to touch him.

"Carter, it's only going to be a couple days," he looks at the Doctor, "Right?"

"Right," Janet says.

"I don't care. I know that I love you. I remember enough to know that I loved you before all of this happened."

"I agree, but we weren't together before," he says.

"I choose you," Sam says trying not to cry. There is only so much that you can blame on pregnancy hormones.

"I choose you too," he smiles, "I'm just a little worried that doing so is going to hurt you. I just want to be really sure you want this before we jump in. Let's just protect each other for a little bit, until we have a clear head."

"What if you don't want me when your head is clear? What about the babies?" Sam says more than a little terrified that she is about to become a single mother to three infants.

"Carter, I am going to be there for those kids," he says with a firmness which reminds her of all that he lost. It reminds her that he was the first one to talk about stealing these babies from the organization that wanted to keep them from their parents.

"Okay," she says, "As long as you don't leave before the ultrasound."

They smile at her with some kind of secret communication which has always been strong with them, and now seems to be on steroids.

"Undomesticated Equines, Carter."

"O'Neill," she corrects.


	23. Home

Jack has a considerable amount of pent up energy after spending three days in the infirmary. Finally, they can remember enough about their lives now that no one thinks they are going to be a security risk or a danger to themselves from not remembering how an oven or a car works. There are still trace amounts of mind alternating drugs in their systems, and Janet asks them to give it the weekend before they make any big life decisions.

They are however allowed to go to their houses.

Jack leaves without saying a word to Sam. Partly because he's pretty damned sure that if he went in to say one word to her he would say all the things they were waiting until Monday to say, and also because he's terrified about what she is going to say.

His family could have fallen apart in the last couple of days, and he wouldn't even know it.

Jack had a general hatred of cleaning. Partly because he actually believed that a few germs were good for the immune system, and barely because it bored him. Every great once in a while he would get annoyed by the piles of clutter all over his house and clean frantically until the place was perfect.

Then, it would begin the slow decent into chaos again. He had only been away from his house for a week and a half, but it was on the far end of the decent into madness when he left for the mission. So, the second he gets home he starts clearing. A few hours later the house is spotless, but he doesn't stop; he dives into _that_ room.

That room where he dumped his memories in unopened boxes when he moved into the house. Boxes he'd only pushed to the floor a few times so Daniel could sleep on the guest bed whenever he came back from the dead or when they couldn't wake Daniel up enough to get a ride home from the designated Jaffa driver.

There is no delay, no hesitation, he opens box after box. Three piles: give away, save for the triplets, and incorporate into the house. He wants there to be just the right amount of Charlie around the house when the kids come.

Then the guest bed comes apart, and goes up in the attic.

It's midnight by the time he finishes, and he should be emotionally and physically exhausted, but he's not.

"It's ridiculous," he whispers, "We haven't even talked about where we would live if we are still going to be together."

Still, the babies would need a room if Sam and they were living here, and if Sam and him decided to be separate. If he and Sam were moving somewhere else a coat of paint on that room wouldn't go amiss anyway.

He tries to watch a little TV, but his nervous energy refuses to let him.

-0-

"Sir?" she still uses the name like it's a nickname instead of a deference to rank. He's not sure if she did that before she lost part of her memories.

"Fancy meeting you here," he mutters.

She giggles, "Yep. We're both in the baby section of Wal-Mart."

"I guess avoiding thinking about the future didn't work for you anymore than it worked for me," he says dryly.

"Actually, this was a small detour after I picked up a new bra," she says holding it up, "It's early, but I've already grown in that department."

His eyes bulge.

Her cheeks turn. "I'm sorry. I am so used to the intimacy we had there. I forgot," she shoves the bra down in the corner of the basket she carries. It's empty though, so it does nothing to divert his eyes.

He drags them up to her face reluctantly.

Her eyes are focused on the paint cans. He meant to just run in and get them, but once he was here he just had to look at the baby things. He hadn't meant to buy anything, but if he was honest with himself he knew he would have if he hadn't run into her

"I like the color," she says, and it looks like she is about to cry. Damn it. He wasn't supposed to upset her.

"I'm sorry. I just needed to do something. I know that we haven't decided what we're doing yet. Where we're going to live…"

She grins at him, "I like the color Jack. I think it would look great in that guest room that I've never supposed to have seen."

He figured she'd looked. It was right next to the bathroom, and four years of team nights was a lot of temptation. "I cleaned it," he says.

She touches her stomach at the thought, and the bag squishes a bit beneath her fingers. She pulls her hand away. Public. It would be a bit hard to explain, luckily she's not going to need it for long. She might have sped through the first month and a half of the pregnancy, but things were going to be a bit more normal soon.

"I miss you," she admits.

He crosses the distance between them to lay a kiss that takes her back to that kiss on the planet. There is no timer now, and no rules (at least not ones they intend to obey) and by the end of it they've forgotten they are in public.

"See you Monday, Carter," Jack says pulling away with a cocky grin on his face.

"O'Neill," he corrects him softly.


	24. Monday

Jack feels like he should be more surprised to see Samantha Carter knocking on his front door at five o'clock in the morning.

"It's always unlocked," he tells her as he opens it.

"Well, that's going to have to change when we've got little kids around," she says narrowing her eyes at him.

Normally he would put up a fight, but right now, he just finds himself feeling incredibly grateful that he gets to rearrange his life to suit her.

"It's Monday," she tells him.

"Technically we haven't got the all clear from Fraiser yet," he reminds her.

"Yes, but right after that happens we are going to go to the General's office and talk about what we are going to do. I wanted to talk to you in private about it first," she tells him.

"Well, I want to be married to you," he says.

"Duh," she says with an obvious eye roll, "I just hope this offer comes with you actually calling me by my first name, or at least my new last name."

"Huh, I thought the whole desire to take my last name would fade when you remembered more about who you were."

"No," she grins wickedly, "It is going to cause a lot of a confusion at work when I walk around work with your last name. I'm looking forward to it," she teases before growing serious, "Also, I want the babies and their parents to all share a name."

"Right," he agrees, "And are we still happy about the fact that you're going to have a litter of children?"

"Oh, I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. I am a little but more nervous about the sheer number though," she admits, "You?" the last word falls in such a way that she is clearly not only asking a question about the number of children they are having, but also bringing up the topic of Charlie.

"I am looking forward to being a dad again," he says.

She smiles, "And I'm moving in here right?"

"It's kind of small. I only have the two bedrooms," he hedges, even though he wants her to come live in his house more than he's wanted almost anything else in his life.

"I think we're going to want them all in the same room for a couple of years, and we can figure out the rest of it latter," she says.

"So, you're selling your house then?"

"Yes, I want to do a gradual move. I started packing things up this weekend. I figure we can stop by after work each night, and just fill your pick-up until it's done."

"I'm going to retire," he says. Everything they've said in this conversation has been so easily decided, without debate, so he is surprised when her face protests the idea. "Sam, you're younger, and way more valuable to the program. I've retired before."

"Jack, you are every bit as important as I am."

He snorts.

"I won't let you give up everything just to be with me. There are lots of other solutions. I could become a civilian scientist…" she begins.

He cuts off her list with the same authority he cuts off her technobabble, "Sam, I really want to be a stay at home dad. I missed a lot with Charlie. I don't really want to go through the gate and leave our children at home. Besides, there are three of them. This is a situation where a full-time parent makes a lot of sense, at least for the first couple of years."

Seeing how serious she is about the whole thing changes her mind, "Okay, but I don't want you to quit until my maternity leave is over."

"Actually, my commission won't be up until two months after that," he shrugs.

"Well, I guess we've pretty much decided our whole future, apart from the names of the babies," Sam says grinning.

"Larry, Curly, and Moe," he says with mock seriousness.

"I've got a carload of boxes if you want to help me unload them before work," she says purposely ignoring him in the vain hope that it will make him stop.

"Jack, Jackie, and Jon," he says heading out to the car.

She works hard to keep the laugh off of her face.

"Samuel, Samantha, and Samson," he says.

"Keep that up and you're going to be the one changing your last name," she says with a glare.

He shrugs his shoulders, "I wouldn't mind being a Carter."

-0-

"Well, I got your test results back," Janet says.

"What's wrong?" Sam asks looking at her friend's face.

"Well, up to now I've only had patients coming from this planet in the second or third trimester. I've never had a patient whose babies were still growing rapidly.," she begins.

"You're telling me these kids are still growing fast?" Jack asks in panic.

"Their rate of growth has slowed down, a lot. It just hasn't returned to normal. I'm thinking that the second and third treatments to speed up the pregnancy were just boasts to the process."

"So, are they going to stop growing fast?" Sam asks.

"I'm pretty sure. From what the other woman on the planet tell me the doctors don't do anything to stop the rapid growth, it just stops on its own. This does mean that we are going to be dealing with a bit shorter of a pregnancy, of course."

"The kids will be fine?" Jack asks.

"Yes, unfortunately we're going to have to stick with your placental IV bag a bit longer, Sam," the doctor says.

"How about the blood work, Doc? Are we cleared to decide our lives?" Jack asks cheerfully.

"I've given you an okay in that department, and the General is waiting for you in his office as we speak," she says cheerfully.

Jack doesn't even think before reaching out and taking Sam's hand in his. The utter familiarity of the action makes Sam's heart flutter. She has been worried that what they had on that planet would fade. That they would have to start the romantic part of their relationship all over, but she can tell already that they are going to be just fine.

-0-

Sam and Jack sit down before the General, and the three of them stare at each other for a few long seconds before Sam and Jack speak at once.

"Sir, I would like to be transferred to a science team until a bit after my maternity leave."

"General, I would like to resign my commission effective at the end of contract date."

It's not that the General really likes either proposal, but he is a father, and so he understands them on a profoundly deep level. "All right then," he says with a sigh, "And the off world marriage?"

"Stays," Jack says.

"We want it to be legal," Sam nods.

"It might be a bit difficult since you were not exactly yourselves when you entered into it, but I will do my best," the General says with a sigh.


	25. Family Part I

Almost everyone that Jack and Sam knows are from to the base, and the news of their relationship spread through that place in what seemed like seconds flat. Jack feels like the whole world knows about their unique relationship. So, when she's taking a load of things to his car, and the phone in her kitchen rings he doesn't even think before he answers it.

"Hello," he says.

A male voice on the other end already sounds pissed, "Who is this?"

"Jack O'Neill, who is this?" he asks with transparently cheerful charm.

"It's Sam's brother, and you're her commanding officer, aren't you?" Mark demands.

"Yes, Sir," Jack says using the military term deliberately to piss off the man. He knows it's not exactly a wise option, but somewhere during the heart to heart back on the planet Sam had let slip how much her brother wanting nothing to do with her had caused her pain.

"What the hell are you doing over at her house?"

"I'm helping her move."

"Sam's moving? She never mentioned it to me."

"Huh," Jack says with mocking surprise. He bites back three sarcastic comments.

"Can I talk to her?" Mark asks.

"Yeah, she's outside right now," Jack says heading to the door to call her in.

Sam walks in just then, and they are pushed into close proximity by the doorway. "I underestimated how heavy that box is. Maybe you are right, and I should let you do all the heavy lifting until after the babies come."

Jack flinches, "I'm always right, and your brother is the one the phone."

She covers her mouth with horror as she takes the phone from him.

"Yeah, it was plural," she responds to the first question that he asks. She falls down in the chair rather emotionally.

"I'm having triplets. They are Jack's. He is retiring a little after they are born. We're married. We're not braking frat rules. If you've got a problem with any of this you can hang up now," Sam says all of these crisp short sentences with terse anger, and seems genuinely surprised when her brother doesn't hang up on her.

Jack takes a box out to his truck, and then lingers there trying to give Sam privacy. She finally comes out to get him.

"Are you okay?" he asks gently touching her cheek.

"I'm fine," she says, "Have you told your parents? If not you probably should. Most of his anger was about not being told."

"I uh…haven't told them yet, no," he admits.

"Okay, well you probably should. We are married, and forever, and about to become quite a big family," she says with raised eyebrows.

"My little niece, she's graduating from preschool next month. I have a ticket already. I thought that would be a good time to…" he begins.

She shakes her head, "I am so not upstaging some little girl, Jack! Tell them now, and I'll go with you when you go to see them."

"Sam, a preschool graduation, it's just a bunch of toddler's singing off key," he says.

"Mark doesn't invite me to these things in his kid's life. I want to be part of a family. I want our kids to have family. It will be a chance to get to know them," she pleads.

"Okay, I'll tell them tonight," he promises.

"Thank you," she says awarding him with a kiss on the tip of his nose, a particular quirk she had developed for public displays of affection ever since they had returned to Earth.

-0-

Jack is a coward, and his mother has a particular affection for e-mail, so long as it is either an e-mail composed with the solemnness of a letter, or a quirky conspiracy theory about how eggs or mayonnaise or microwaves are going to give you cancer.

So instead of giving his family a phone call, he composes her an e-mail.

Sunday 11:40pm

 _Hi Mom,_

 _Tell dad hi for me, and also tell him the news in this letter._

 _Can I bring someone out for Susan's graduation next month? Yes, it's a girl. My wife actually. Her name is Sam. I met her at work. She's a scientist and a soldier. She rides motorcycle and knows how to pick a lock. You're going to like her._

 _I know you're probably pissed that we got married without telling you. Well, it was a long time coming, and completely out of the blue. We had feelings for each other for a long time, but you know me and feelings. So, we ignored them for years._

 _Then we really decided to stop waiting for crap to happen, and got married. We really, really, wanted to have a baby so we tried a fertility treatment. It worked a little bit better than expected and we ended up with three babies. She's a couple of months along right now._

 _We're a little surprised and a touch overwhelmed, but we are also happy. Like, really over the moon kind of happy._

 _Love you lots._

 _-Jack_

Monday 1 pm

 _Jack, answer your phone I can't figure out how to make the internet to give me plane tickets._

 _-Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan O'Neill_

Monday 3 pm

 _Never mind. I just called them. I was on the phone for decades waiting for someone to answer. I'm pretty sure the one who finally did was a foreigner. You know that's all they have working these phones these days._

 _Your father and I are going to be coming to your house tomorrow. Don't worry about picking us up we're going to rent a car._

 _-Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan O'Neill_

Monday 4pm

 _Answer your phone! At least when I didn't it was because I was at work. What time does your flight get in? Of course, I'll met you. Also, you need to stop being racist. We've talked about this. And stop signing your e-mail with Dad's name when he probably doesn't even know what's in them._

 _-Jack_

Monday 9pm

 _I don't want you leaving that poor pregnant woman to drive all that way. We'll be arriving at your house at six o'clock though, and we'll stop by a store first and get the fixings for a meal. I don't want to put that wife of yours to any extra work because of us, she's got enough on her plate with three babies on the way._

 _I don't know how to change the sign off, your sister helped me set it up. Besides, in my day women were proud to use their husband's name as their own._

 _-Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan O'Neill_

-0-

"Jack, I told you not to come and pick us up," his mother scolds him with a light slap on his shoulder. "I didn't even tell you what time we were coming in."

"If you didn't like it you never should have taught me to subtract," Jack responds pulling her into a hug.

Sam smiles awkwardly at her new father-in-law wondering if a hug is expected in this situation or not. The man settles the question for her by pulling her into a bone crushing hug. When he pulls away he is staring at her stomach in confusion. It takes Sam a moment to figure out what is going on. Then she remembers that she still has a bag attached to her stomach.

"Right," Jack says, "The kids have a little medical thing. It's not a big deal, they're going to be fine, and Sam is fine. It just means she has to wear this bag on her belly to give them a little extra nourishment."

Jack's father's eyes (as deep and penetrative as Jack's own) are focused on Sam, "How serious is this condition?"

"They are really fine. It's really almost resolved," Sam assures him, "It's gotten better and better every checkup."

He seems to detect some truth in her eyes, and then turns to his son to give him the intense hug.

"We're going to have to stop by a grocery store on the way home," Mrs. O'Neill warns her son as she gives Sam a big hug.

"I have food at home, mom," Jack says with an eye roll.

"I know how you keep your fridge. I intend on making sure that everyone is going to get some real food while I'm here," the woman scolds with her hands on her hips.

"Jack's fridge has changed since I moved in," Sam says.

Mrs. O'Neill looks at Jack completely shocked, "Did you find yourself a woman who could cook?" she asks obviously surprised and impressed.

"I did," he says smiling proudly.

"Well, as long as I am here you are not going to have to. You are going to be able to put your feet up and relax," Mrs. O'Neill assures the younger woman.

"Well, Jack insists on doing all of the dishes and cleaning, so I already get a lot of relaxing in," Sam admits, "I must say the two of you did a pretty good job raising that son of yours."

"Well thank you dear. I will say that every gray hair on my head is due to him. There were sometimes when I didn't even think he was going to survive his childhood, let alone grow up to be a good man."

"Is this what I have to look forward with these three? I'm going to be doomed!" Sam explains as the group starts to head out of the airport.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that we are at least going to have a hard time with Louse," Jack says.

"Louse?" Mr. O'Neill asks with eyebrows raised in a way that reminds them both a bit of Teal'c.

Sam smacks his arm, "I told you not to call our babies that anymore!"

"They don't have ears yet. I'll stop when they have ears."

"I don't believe you," she glares.

"So, our little ones seem to be coming in the sizes of small, medium and large," Jack explains, "And the middle one was kicking it's sibling in the last sonogram. So, I've started calling the little one mouse, the pain in the butt one louse, and the big one house."

"It's horrible," Sam says quickly.

They are laughing however, "It's also very Jack," Mrs. O'Neill says.

-0-

"Carter, why don't you sit down in the car while I load up my folk's stuff?" Jack asks when they get to the car.

"That's not my name anymore," she says crossing her arms.

"Is that official now?" he asks.

"Yes," she says.

"All right than, _Sam_ , get in the car, and buckle up those babies," he says giving her a quick kiss before she walks off.

"Carter is her last name?" Mr. O'Neill asks.

"It was," Jack agrees.

"Why are you calling your wife by her last name?" Mr. O'Neill asks.

Jack closes the trunk, before he turns to his parents, and answers, "I told you that it was a long time coming and quite sudden. Sam served un…" he stops realizing how dirty what he was about to say was, "on my team for many years. When we finally made the decision to be together it was a pretty quick transition between working together and being together. It's taken me a bit of time to adjust."


	26. Family Part II

Sam though she'd gotten up early enough to make breakfast before her mother-in-law did. But, you have to get up pretty early in the morning to best Marlene O'Neill as the clinking of the dishes tells her when she enters the room.

"Sam honey, I'm glad you're up. I can't seem to find the milk."

"Right. Ever since I got pregnant milk totally disgusts me. I'm sorry. There is no dairy in his house. We've got soy milk though."

"Never cooked with the stuff," the older woman frowns.

"Mostly it's the same. It's different if you boil it. What are we making?" she asks.

"Let me do for you, Samantha, you're carrying three babies all at once, and working a job too. At least let me do the cooking while I'm here."

"I like cooking. And carrying babies, and working for that matter," Sam says.

"I was so sick when I had Jack and his sisters. I can't imagine what it would have been like if I had all three at once, and with some sort of sickness in them," she glances down at Sam's belly where the line of the IV bag can be seen beneath of her pajama tank top, "Let alone with a job. You know there is something to be said for the old days when women didn't work. It was good when you were sick with babies, and it was good when the children were small and needed all of their Mama's time."

"Well, Jack's actually going to be staying home with the babies," Sam says grabbing eggs out of the fridge. Marlene hasn't answered her question about what they are having for breakfast, and she's decided that she is craving French toast.

"Really?" Marlene asks, "That does seem very Jack. He loves children that one. That's why it was so hard on him when…" she stops and looks at Sam.

"I know about Charlie. I've seen Jack with a couple of kids over the years. One of our friends adopted a girl. She's single and that little girl has always considered Jack to be more or less her father. He's going to be amazing with them."

"So, he's leaving the Air Force again?" Marline asks.

"Yeah."

Marlene puts the frying pot down, and says, "Sugar, believe me when I saw I don't care one way or the other, but I've got to know if my grandbabies didn't pre-date the wedding just a bit."

"They were conceived very soon after we were married. They were very much wanted. We didn't want to wait a long time into our marriage for kids," Sam says with a smile.

"Well, I'm certainly not objecting to grand kids! If you had just called up and told us that you were married I probably would have started hinting for them. It does seem like it's happening very suddenly though, and three kids had to have been quiet the shock."

"Not really, with the treatment that we were using we always knew that multiples were a risk. It works out nicely, because I'm not that far from the end of my childbearing years really, and Jack's got a decade and a half on me. This way we can have three children all in one scoop. If we had them one by one we would be even older by the time we got through with parenting," Sam says by this time she's swooped around the kitchen adding cinnamon, sugar, and milk to the egg batter. Marlene is heating butter in the frying pan.

"You know my son, he acts like nothing ever touches him. Like tragedy rolls of his back like oil off a duck's back. Thing is, that duck has been through and oil spill, and he doesn't have a whole lot of protection left."

"I am aware that there is a sensitive being beneath his hard exterior. I promise that I'm going to take good care of your son, Marlene."

"You can call me Mama," she says.

Sam's eyes well up.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Honey, you don't have to," Marlene says wrapping her arms around her.

"No, I'm sorry. It's just my own mom died when I was a teenager. I've been thinking about her a lot lately, since I found out about the babies especially."

"Marlene will do," Marlene says pulling away and dabbing at Sam's eyes with a dish cloth.

"If you're okay with leaving the option open I'll get there sometime. Just don't think it's about you if it takes a while," Sam says.

"Hey, did I hear you making my wife cry?" Jack says coming into the kitchen with the facial expression he always wears when he first wakes up, half confused and half angry.

"We were talking about my mom," Sam says.

"Ah," he says, and for a second he looks like he's the old Jack O'Neill ready to run from emotions again, "She's the one who taught Sam how to be such a good cook."

"She's also the one who taught me how to play poker," Sam says.

"Really? What kind of a mother teachers her little girl to lie well?" Jack says in genuine surprise.

"Trust me, she regretted in a few years later. When I was ten I used to recruit my little brother into the craziest schemes. He would tell her that I was the one who did it, but I would always deny it so well she would end up not punishing either of us, having no idea who to believe."

"What about Jacob?" Jack asks.

"Dad was gone for most of that year. It was one of those really long trips where he couldn't even tell us what country he was in. I hated those the worst, because you know if he did die oversees on one of those missions we wouldn't have even gotten the truth about what happened to him."

Jack wraps an arm around her back, and she leans into him, "Jack, if anything happens to me you're going to tell the babies the truth, when they are old enough to understand. Even if you aren't supposed to."

"Nothing is going to happen to you," he grumbles.

She doesn't say anything more, but just turns his eyes on him in a glare.

"Yes, Sammy. I will tell our children everything if it were to ever come to that. Which it won't."

The frying pan sizzles just then, and everyone turns back to the making of breakfast.

-0-

"What do you want Sam?" Jack asks in frustration right in the middle of one of his father's fishing stories as the family all sits on his back deck.

"I didn't say anything," she says.

"No, but you were making that face."

"What face?"

"The 'I really want something, but it's way too much work to move with the babies, so I'm just going to sit here and be miserable face'."

"That is a lot of words to say without talking, just how exactly did you learn to identify this face?" she asks.

"You've been making it a lot lately. Come on now, I'm the reason three human beings are rearrange all of your vital organs just tell me what you want, and I'll go get it for you.'

"I'm sorry," she says.

"I'm not," he grins at her.

"Half water, half juice please," she says with a smile.

"Your wish is my command," he says giving her an upside-down kiss as he walks past her.

"You've got that boy trained," Jack's father says.

"Well, I'm pretty sure it was the two of you who actually did the training," she says giving them a grin.

"Oh, no, he never waited on Sara the way that he waits on you," Mr. O'Neill argues.

"Never smiled at her that way either," Marlene says grinning, "You two have something special."

"I think so," Sam agrees solemnly. "Now when he comes back you should pretend that you told me about the most embarrassing thing that he ever did."

"I'll do you one better. I'll tell you for real," Marlene says leaning forward, "When Jack was little he used to sleep walk. When he was about eight years old he decided he was too grown-up for pajamas, so he took to sleeping in his underpants, well this one night he found a way past the special locks we put up on the doors, and he walked right into the neighbor's back garden. There he was in among the rutabagas when the sun came up. He ran as quick as he could, so the little girl that lived there didn't see."

"Her name was Jane Larson, and I had a crush on her," Jack says handing her the juice as well as some cookies that she hadn't even known she'd wanted until she saw them.

"You had your first crush when you were eight?" Sam asks.

"Goodness no," he says rubbing her shoulders, "I was more like three. Now _her_ name was Patty…Patty."

"Mason, if you're talking about the girl you were always making cry," his father supplies.

"It was Patty Mason, you're right," Jack nods.

"What did you do to make her cry?" Sam asks looking up at him as he towers above her chair.

Her upward turned face causes him to place another kiss on it before he continues with his story. "I used to pull her pig tales. Not a very evolved way of showing affection, but I have grown since then."

"I don't know what I'm going to do if all of these babies start dating when they are that little."

"We can use Murry to scare them away from it for a few years at least," Jack says. "He's a teammate of ours. Built like a tank. Doesn't really know how to smile, and when he does it's even scarier than when he's not smiling."

"Don't worry honey, you're going to have a lot of problems to deal with those babies before that," Marlene says.

"Like childbirth, I know," Sam says.

"I think she was referring to the fact that O'Neill babies tend to be large," Mr. O'Neill says.

"Well, that might actually be a good thing. Multiples tend to come early, so if they have a little extra weight for their age when they enter the world it might just mean they are better off."

"I was actually talking about the way all the babies on my side of the family are born with teeth. All three of my babies had them. It was like feeding vampires. Jack bit me bloody more than once."

"I don't know how many times I can apologize for that, Mom," she says with a roll of his eyes.

"I think my nipples are still a little misshapen," Marlene pouts.

"They were that way to begin with, stop your whining," Mr. O'Neill declares.

"I'm thinking formula is sounding better and better," Sam declares.

"I've been meaning to ask you to write down the name of whatever sickness the babies have on a slip of paper. Then I can ask the internet about it later."

Sam can hear the sound of Jack face palming behind her, "Mom, you say you're going to look it up on the internet. You have to stop talking like the internet is a person."

"I never said it was a person, but you ask it things in the little box, and it tells you answers," Marlene says annoyed.

"Well, I really don't think that what the babies have is going to be on the internet," Sam says.

"Is it genetic, because Jack's little sister is planning on having another baby, and if this problem is something that runs in the family somebody should probably tell her."

"It's not genetic," Sam says.

"Ah. Is it something that you got from that job of yours?" Marlene asks the couple tenderly.

Sam nods not daring to look up and look the woman in the eyes. She's has been trying to work through the guilt of how the choices that she made were affecting her babies, but from the perspective of a stranger it all seemed even worse.

"You got the best doctor's on it? I know sometimes when things are top secret and double classified they don't give you a whole lot of choice, but these are your babies that we are talking about and if they aren't giving you the very best you'd better do something about it," Marlene says

"Janet is a friend of mine. She's saved my life more than once. There is no one that I trust with my babies more."

"Good," Mr. O'Neill says with a nod. "Now, Sam, why don't you ask your husband to bring me a beer with those magic powers of yours."

"I'm not going unless she asks me himself," Jack declares stubbornly.

Sam turns her pleading eyes upon him, and he makes a few more mumbled protests before he gets up and fulfilled his mother's request.


	27. Solution

Jack finds it really hard to stay away from his wife for too long. She has gotten pretty used to him coming into her lab two or three times during a work day. Usually, like now, he comes with some sort of food. Janet has promised that if she is able to eat enough calories in a day she will be allowed to take out the external feeding bag.

This time it's mixed fruit.

"Oh, you are an angel," she says moving into a kiss before she pulls away remembering that they are still at work.

"What are you working on?" he says perching on a bench.

"You remember when we were on that planet, and we promised that we would find a way to free all those people when we came back?" she asks.

"Of course, but you can't blame yourself for not being able to do that. It's a really big problem, and you have to focus on the babies that you are having. Don't blame yourself."

"I'm not, I'm just working on a solution," Sam says with a grin.

"What? Really?" he asks leaning forward.

"Well we actually have this chemical on Earth too. It's not widely used, but there were a couple of cult leaders who used it. I think one of them might have been ruled by a Goa'uld, but I'm pretty sure he left the planet now."

"Okay, wow, so you think the Federation might have gotten the idea from the Goa'uld originally?"

"Probably, but the point is that someone has already found the solution. It's in the form of a shot right now."

"So, we could just walk up and put a shot in a bunch of people's arms?" Jack says.

"Right, but that would be pretty hard to do. I mean, the only shot these people use is…" she says looking down at him remembering the moment when she put a shot directly into his manhood.

"Right, and that would only help half of the people on the planet."

"Plus, they only use it during one day a year for each couple," she reminds him.

"So, your plan is?"

"I need to make it something that has an affect when consumed, like they did to the flu vaccine. I'm trying to put it into their tea. Then when they take a drink trying to make themselves more compliant."

"They are going to end up free," he says with a nod, "That's brilliant."

"I know it doesn't exactly solve all of our problems," she points out.

"Well, I think we shouldn't have too much problems with delivery. They are so desperate for servants that they would probably believe a small team when they applied for this job. Then we could just put it in the tea vat."

"I was thinking about the after. We're going to have hundreds of people who are going to be angry about what has happened to them. Jack, I don't know if all of them are even in love with each other. They might think of what happened to them a whole lot differently than we do. They might think of it as a lot more like…"

"Rape," he nods his head.

"Maybe it would be better to leave them as they are. I mean, most of them are fairly happy. If we give them their own minds back they are going to have an awful lot to deal with."

"And if we don't give them their minds back whatever is happening to them is going to keep happening. And then it will happen to their children, and their grandchildren. Sam, they are trying to take over every inhabitable planet in the galaxy. Sure, right now they are starting with the ones that don't have people on it yet, but I can't think that that is going to last forever. We have to stop them."

Sam nods. "Okay, so I'm working on it."

"Keep up the good work," he says standing up from the stool. He draws an x in the air, and even though they haven't talked about the symbol before it actually feels like a kiss. So she returns the gesture.


	28. Mission

"Occupied," Jack says when he hears a knock on the locker room door.

"I know, I'll wait until you are all dressed, but I wanted to say goodbye to my husband before he left," Sam responds.

"We're all decent, come in," Daniel says.

"Besides, you used to change with us, so you can feel free to barge into our dressing room any time that you want," her husband says.

"It's a little different now, don't you think? At least between the two of us?" she asks.

"So, you're saying it's okay for you to see our friends naked, but it's not okay to see me naked?" he asks.

She giggles, "Sort of."

Teal'c inclines his head to Daniel, and the two of them walk out of the room together.

"This is one of the few rooms on base that don't have cameras," Sam points out to him.

"Yes, and?" he says raising his eyebrows invitingly.

She responds to the invitation with a searing kiss. "You come back safe," she tells him.

"I plan on it," he responds.

"De Opresso Libre," she mutters, "I'm not sure the Air Force has ever been quiet so serious about it as they are right now," she says.

"Well, you're the one who perfected the formula so you deserve at least as much credit as I do."

"You make sure that you're going to come home to us," she says touching her stomach.

"I plan on it," she says kissing her.

"I sent a message to my dad when we got back. I got an answer today."

"Am I going to miss him?"

"Probably," she says, "It might be for the best. I don't know how he is going to take all of this. I know he likes you, but he's probably not going to be a big fan of the way this all happened."

"He's going to be fine as soon as he sees how much we love each other, and how much we love those little babies."

"He _is_ going to be pretty excited about them," she says touching her stomach.

"I did not hear a bag crinkle," he says with excitement.

"Nope, Janet said I could fly without it. At least for now. If all of the levels stay up."

"That is amazing, Sam, great job!" he gives her another quick peck on the lips, "I have to get going."

"Yep, go save the universe."


	29. Jacob

"Hey kiddo," Jacob says to Sam in the soft voice that he used to use with her when she as sick, or that he would walk around with whenever her mother got one of her migraines. His eyes don't leave her stomach.

"Hey, Dad," she says giving him a hug.

"Did they get to you in time?" he asks nervously.

"Well, Jack, and I did a great deal of the rescuing ourselves. But, yet, we made it out of there on time, because they didn't take out babies away from us."

"So, you're having babies?" he says glumly missing all the signals that would tell him how his daughter feels about this. He is to o caught up in how he feels about an alien race forcing his daughter to have babies to see her joy.

"Triplets."

"They are Jack's?"

She nods, and this time he doesn't miss all the joy on her face.

"You are okay?" he asks surprised.

"Very okay. More okay than I've been in a long time."

He hesitates not even sure that his daughter is with it enough to answer his question honestly even if she wants to, "Sam, George mentioned there were drugs involved in your capture."

"Don't worry, this is me talking. They are all of my system. I was cleared by Janet two weeks ago. Speaking of which, you need to be cleared as well."

He falls into step next to her heading to the infirmary, "How is this working…You having Jack's babies?"

"We got married on the planet, Dad."

"And it's sticking?" Jacob asks surprised once again.

"Jack described it to his parents as a long time coming and completely out of the blue. I think that pretty much sums it up. We're not together just because of anything that happened on that planet, or these babies growing inside of me. We're together because of feelings that we've had a long time."

Her father is silent beside her, and his face is unreadable. Finally he says, in his migraine preventing voice, "Good enough."

"You going to stay for a while?"

"Well, I have to get to know my new son-in-law."

"Jack's on a mission right now. Trying to free other people that were taken hostage by the people who took us. He'll be back tomorrow…late."'

"I might stay a week, if you can put up with your old man this long."

She grins, and he can't help but notice that the smiles have come a whole lot easier to his daughter's face after that planet. Who would have thought that Jack O'Neill was exactly the person to make his daughter happy?

-0-

For a second Jacob thinks that his daughter has missed her turn, and then he realizes that she is not planning on going to her own house at all.

"You are living with Jack?" he asks.

"Yes, I'm selling my house." Sam glances at her father in between driving to determine how he feels about all of this. "You want me to take you to a hotel?"

"No, I'm just absorbing," he responds. She pulls into his driveway. An old woman is planting flowers in the flowerbed next door, and Sam stops to chat with her, introducing her father to her, and asking about her small dogs by name. The two act as if they have known each other forever instead of the mere weeks that must be truth.

Upon entering the house the last of his fears are relieved. This is not Jack's house that his daughter moved into. It's a hybrid house which clearly belongs to both of them. She belongs here, more than perhaps she's ever belonged anywhere before.

"We don't have a guest room anymore. We've started to convert it into a nursery. We haven't got as far on that as we liked, but we did clear it out. The couch folds out. It's comfortable I swear. We tried everyone in the furniture store until we found one that we liked. We wanted you to feel at home here, Dad."

He pulls her into a hug, "I'm happy for you, Sammy," he says seriously.

"Thank you, dad. It means so much to me that you approve."

"I want you to be happy. I'm a bit pushy at times, but it's only because I think you should have the best of life. The absolute best."

"I can understand that," she says rubbing a hand over her belly.

"Have you and Jack started thinking of names yet?"

"The man has far too much a sense of humor to have that conversation. It's all jokes and references to Simpson's characters."

"You still have some time right? Even with the rapid growth?" he asks concerned.

"Yes, the fast part is over. Janet says they look like they are four months along right now."

"Sam, when they took you…" he pauses looking worried at her.

"Nothing happened to me that I didn't want to happen Dad," she assures him.

-0-

Jack opens the door to his house, and hears the sound of his wife in mid-giggle. He remembers the first time that she'd done that. "No giggling, Captian," he'd warned her, because he had known, even all the way back then, that there was no way he could listen to her giggle like that for very long before he fell head over heals in love with her.

He enters the living room to see Sam and her father sprawled out on the pull out full size bed which is covered in junk food: popcorn soggy with butter (he'd been hoping it was a pregnancy thing, but if Jacob tolerated it than it probably wasn't), chips all flavored things no chip should be, twirlers, chocolate, pizza, and of course, diet coke.

"I'm guessing my offering of ice cream is going to be a little less impressive now," he says holding up the container.

"Oh, no that's exactly what this meal needed!" Sam explains with excitement, "Get the big spoon. The serving spoon! Never mind. You'll bring me a small one!" she says bounding out of the room to the kitchen.

"I'm glad you could stay," Jack offers Jacob.

"It felt odd staying in your house when you weren't around to say anything about it," the other man offers almost bashfully (if former Air Force generals can ever be called bashful.)

"Oh, it's definitely our house. Sam can invite whoever she wants. Besides, you're family, you don't really need an invitation."

Jacob smiles gratefully at that, "We used to do this when Sam was a teenager," he says swaying his hand over the mess on the bed, "After her mother died."

"Given the way Sam looked, and the salad, diet coke and jello meals I've seen her eat at base, I'd thought this junk food thing was a consequence of growing humans inside of her.," Jack admits.

"No, Sam eats healthy most of the time, and exercises all of the time. Then every once in a while she eats like an absolute pig."

"I think life is hard enough, and you've got to grab on to whatever happiness comes your way, and hold on tight," Jack says.

"What are we grabbing?" Sam asks with a giant wooden spoon while snatching the ice cream out of his arm.

"Junk food, and joy," Jack responds sitting down in the armed chair, and watching his wife consume ice cream like it is an Olympic event.

"How did the mission go?" Sam asks her husband as she takes a huge bite.

"Excellent. Daniel stayed to help them write a constitution. Even the leadership was on that stuff. It's probably been generations since there was anyone who actually chose to be a part of that Federation. There is a lot of grief right now, but going forward people are not going to be sending their babies off to the stars anymore."


	30. Graduation

"Samantha, you're huge!" Marlene declares.

"Is that really wise to bring up, Mom?" Jack says warningly.

"I _am_ huge," Sam defends, "It's not her fault."

"Pregnancy looks good on you Samantha, you might have to make a habit of it," Marlene continues.

"Oh, I think three children will be enough for us," Sam laughs.

"Well, I guess I'll have to go back to working on Jack's sisters trying to get more babies from them," she says with a mock exaggerated sigh.

"Trying to get babies out of Anna shows an excess of patience, and a lack of wisdom, and I don't think Sophie is going to be a very hard sell," Jack informs her.

"Samantha, do you know any nice men for Anna?" Marlene continues ignoring her son's objections.

"I don't know anyone in Chicago, apart from you guys," she says.

"Well, it might be a bit hard for her to move, but we could try to talk her into it," Marlene says.

"Mom, Anna's job is important, and she loves it. Every time you bug her about grandkids is one less picture we are going to send you of the triplets," Jack threatens.

Sam squeezes her husband's hand out of gratitude for his defense of his sister.

-0-

"Uncle Jack!" a four-year-old dressed in a fluffy princess dress, long superhero cape, and lady-bug rainboots exclaims rushing into his arms.

"Well, hello their little Miss. Susan, congratulations on your graduation."

"I know my colors, and my letters, and lota songs, so they won't let me go to school anymore," she explains proudly.

"Until next year," Jack corrects.

"What?" the child asks sadly.

"Next year you'll go to kindergarten," he informs her.

"More school!" she says falling backward in an overly dramatic way that nearly made her fall out of Jack's arms. She is only saved by his battle honed reflexes.

"After kindergarten there are twelve grades, and then college," Sam explains cheerfully.

"I'm going to be in school forever!" the girl exclaims.

"Great job, we were trying to keep that from her," Susan's mother, Sophie says around the corner to retrieve her dramatic child from her brother.

"If you want me to lie to your child you're going to have to give me a heads up," Jack says with mock annoyance.

"How are you doing big brother?" Sophie asks giving him a hug.

"Really well," he says smiling.

"And how did he trap you, poor thing?" she asks turning to Sam.

"Oh you know, patriotic society, brainwashing, and mind control drugs, the usual," she jokes. Her husband's face clearly shows he doesn't find it funny at all.

Sophie however, finds it hilarious.

"Where is my nephew?" Jack asks.

"Dave is outside with his father," she says.

"Playing baseball?" Jack asks with a smile.

"Not fair, you came for my graduation. You're not allowed to play with brother," Susan pouts.

"Well love, why don't you play with us, and then we'll let you pick what to do next?" Jack asks.

"Okay," she bounces, "But we will play princess superhero."

"Sounds fun, you coming, Sam?"

"No, I think carrying three babies across the country is enough exercise for today, thanks," she teases.

"Feed her," he commands his mom before giving Sam a quick kiss on the lips and letting his niece drag her out of the room.

Sophie links her arm with her, and drags Sam into the kitchen.

"I'm really not that hungry," Sam says meekly.

"Pickles," Sophie says with confidence.

"Pickles do sound good," Sam says.

"Can I put them in a sandwich for you?" Marlene suggests.

"Sure," Sophie says sitting down on the bar stool in the kitchen. "So, why are you putting up with brother exactly?"

"He is the most honorable man I've ever known," Sam says seriously.

"Okay, but how exactly did you see through the crusty exterior?" Sophie asks.

"I fought beside him for years. He doesn't hide how amazing he is when people's lives are on the line."

"I don't want to do the big brother thing, because I'm actually his little sister, but you know that…"

"He's not as strong as he pretends to be, yeah."

"He deserves a happily ever after. You're going to give him that right?"

"I'm going to try to," Sam says.

"How come we didn't get invited to the wedding?" Sophie says.

"We didn't invite anyone actually. We had a very private wedding ceremony," Sam tries to explain.

"Well, at least give me details!" Sophie complains.

"Well, it was a local festival. It was a five-day long ceremony. A lot of talking, sharing, and joint meditation."

"Well, that sounds nothing like Jack. You must have him wrapped around your little finger."

She snorts.

"Samantha, he does do a lot for you," Marlene reminds her.

"I know, but that's…we're a team, you know? And the wedding wasn't my style either. I don't regret it. Don't get me wrong. It was perfect. It's just…not exactly how I pictured it all when I was a little girl."

"So, I might be able to talk you into a fairy tale wedding?" Sophie asks raising her eyebrows.

Sam giggles, "Maybe for our fifth anniversary or something. I think we're going to be pretty busy for the next couple of years."

"Speaking of which, by the time Christmas comes around you're not going to be fit to travel are you?"

"I'm already only a couple of weeks away from the cut off for flying in a plane. The babies could easily be born by then. Triplets tend to come early."

"Right, so I think all of us should come to you this year. I don't want you to play host though, you'll be too far along, or too buried in new babies for that. I'll fly down early, and take care of all of that for you."

"And I want to come down to help out after the kids come. You pick a week, and I'll take some vacation from work," Sophie offers.

"Well, and as far as that goes I can come down for as long as you need me for," Marlene declares.

"They are triplets, not an army. I think we'll be able to handle them. After all, Jack is going to be staying home."

"Honey, I stayed home with my three kids, and I can tell you right now that it was hard. I can't imagine if they came all at once. I mean, there was three years between Jack and Soph, and her little sister didn't enter the picture for four and a half years after that, and my kids were still way too close together," Marlene says.

"I would argue that was because Jack always acted way younger than he really was," Sophie says.

"My point is, anyone having three babies all at once would need some help."

"Well, I really appreciate the offer, and I'll let you know if we need it. We do have a lot of friends in town. My best friend has a daughter who just turned fourteen. She offered to babysit. Not that I plan on letting her be alone with all of the kids, that would be a bit much. But I do plan on using her in a mother's helper on occasion."

"That's great, but if you find you need a lot more help than that you've got to let us know," Sophie says.

"And don't forget that I'd be a little bit disappointed if you didn't need my help. I do want some time with those babies!" Marlene declares.

"Sorry to interrupt ladies, but it appears we have a bit of a wardrobe malfunction," Jack says carrying in the crying Susan and her very ripped cape.

-0-

"Aunie!" Susan yells running toward the door as soon as it opens.

Dave jumps up to give her a hug, and Sam doesn't miss the fact that candy is slipped to both of the children, despite the fact that they're currently in the middle of breakfast.

As soon as the kids run off with their treasures Anna walks up to Sam's belly and proclaims, "Hello little ones. I'll have you know that I'm the fun Auntie."

"How is it going little sister?" Jack asks pulling her into a hug.

"Good. Thanks for having a litter of babies so you can get mom of my back about having babies, at least for a little while," she responds.

"Well, that didn't work. But I did threaten her with fewer pictures if she didn't back off," Jack replies.

"Well, in return for that public service I am volunteering my services as Auntie Extraordinaire on a regular basis."

"We couldn't ask you to do that," Sam says confused and a bit insulted by all these offers to help her take care of her kids. "We know how you feel about kids."

"I love 'em to pieces? Just because I don't want to have any of my own doesn't mean that I don't want to spend a great deal of time with them. I like to use my childless position in life to put a lot into my niece and nephew. I'm so excited to have three more. Especially…" she glances at Jack with sadness in her eyes for a second, "Especially since they're Jack's kids. I really want to spoil Charlie's siblings."

Jack puts his arm around her again, and gives her a tight squeeze.

"Our kids are lucky to have you," Sam says standing up to hug her.

"So, my brother is not so good with the giving of details. How did the two of you meet?" Anna asks returning the hug, and the plopping down on the couch.

"We actually met at work," Sam says slowly an carefully.

"She walked in the briefing room at her first day in a new job bragging about her reproductive organs," Jack says with a grin.

Sam glares at him, and Anna burst out laughing. "No, I'm sure there is more to the story," she says slapping Sam's leg, "But God when Jackie starts in the middle of a story it makes it pretty funny, eh?"

"I might have said something a bit unwise in response to some sexist comment," Sam hedges.

"Jack? Say something sexist? Really?" Anna says giving her brother a glare, "Don't tell me that when you get around all of those other Air Force men you fall into the old boy's trap. I assure you, when he's in the home he's really quite the feminist. I've been working on training him ever since before I could talk."

"Oh, I know that he's really quite feminist, especially in the things that matter. When I was serving under him he went out of his way to make sure that he developed my talent. He taught me to be a better soldier, and helped me break some habits that would have held me back. Then again, he also used to tell me not to giggle," she says demonstrating her fine art of that.

"Hey, that was protection of my own heart. I so didn't want to fall for someone who served under me."

"Well, the telling me not to giggle didn't really save you did it?" Sam teases.

"No, there was nothing that could have kept me back from falling head over heals for you," he says leaning over to give her a kiss.

"Oh, these babies are so lucky to have parents like you guys. All loving and sweet at the front stage of your marriage. It's so cute!" Anna gushes.

"I still think we should get to see this wedding," Sophie protests entering the room.

"Honestly, you're getting as bad as mom. You need to enjoy where they are in life instead of trying to push them somewhere else!" Ann exclaims. "Tell me everything about your job," she says turning eagerly to Sam.

"Well, a lot of what I do is classified," she slowly hedges.

"Jack to told us literally nothing. I mean, I guess you're Air Force?" Sophie prompts.

"Major," Jack says proudly like he'd won the rank himself.

"I'm a physicist," Sam declares.

"You're kidding! Jack married a scientist?" Sophie says laughing at him.

"I like scientists," he says glaring at his sister.

"The profession has grown on him," Sam says grinning, "Although that might have more to do with Daniel than me actually."

"Well, the guy saved my life sure, tends to make him grow on you," Jack says.

Anna smacks her brother, "You told me you weren't doing dangerous things anymore."

"Well, I lied, but after these kids enter the picture it won't be a lie anymore," Jack tells her.

"You?" Anna asks looking at Sam.

"I'll be going back to our job after my maternity leave," Sam says.

Anna puts an arm around her, "Stay safe."

"Our team is pretty amazing. She's got some pretty good protection."


	31. Lamaze

"Well, Congratulations," Janet says waving the ultrasound wand over Sam's belly, "Your babies have officially grown only how much they _should_ have grown since your last ultrasound. You can now safely tell people that you are five months pregnant, without having to explain some sort of wacky rapid growth later on."

"And they are all three still healthy?" Jack asks.

Janet nods and smiles.

"So, five months huh? Isn't that the one where…"

"You want to know genders?" Janet asks with a smile.

"Yes, please," Jack says rubbing his hands together eagerly.

"Two girls, and a boy."

"Okay, but which one is which?" he asks.

"You want me to point at the parts of her stomach or what? They are sort of hard to identify in utero."

"The big one is…" Jack prompts.

"A boy," Janet supplies.

"That's right little man," he says grinning.

"I was really thinking the one who kept beating up the other two was going to be the boy. Are you sure the violent one is a daughter?" Sam asks.

Janet laughs at this, but Jack wears a face of mock offense. "Watch it Sam I have heard stories about you and your brother when you were small, and I know that the boy wasn't the aggressor in those!"

"Well, anyway, it's probably a bit early to assume that you know a whole lot about their personalities," Janet offers flipping the machine off, and offering Sam a rag to wipe the jell of her stomach.

"I don't know. Mom said that she knew me and Mark right away. She said that even from the belly I was active to a fault, and she always claimed that he threw his first temper tantrum when she was only seven weeks pregnant."

"I'm just saying, don't start thinking that that little girl is a behavior problem before she ever enters the world. Expectations are really powerful when it comes to that sort of thing, and if you think it enough you might be the reason it comes true."

"Just because we tell the truth about our kids doesn't mean that we like them any less, or that we'd want to change them," Jack defends, "In fact, I would like her a bit less I think, if she suddenly stopped beating up on her brother and sister."

"Of course, when she comes out we're going to protect them from her, and teach her to deal with her problems non-violently," Sam says pulling down her shirt, and turning around in the chair enough to glare at her husband.

"You'll do that. I'll just teach them to fight back," Jack says.

"We'll work on his parenting skills before the baby gets here," she assures Janet who just laughs in response.

-0-

When Sam first got up from watching TV, Jack had just assumed that she had to go to the bathroom. Carrying triplets, going to the bathroom was something that took up a good portion of her time. When she didn't return, and he was seriously missing having her lean against him so he flipped off the TV, and when in search of her.

It didn't take him long to find her. She's in the nursery sitting in the glider that they had just purchased for the babies. Her eyes are fixed on the crib they'd managed to put together before taking a break for the night, and she's rocking a teddy bear in her hands, not quite like you rock a baby, but more like a small child rocks a baby doll.

Maybe he's not the only one who needs his parenting skills brushed up on a bit before the babies enter the picture.

"You okay?" he asks.

"Very okay. It's getting more real isn't it?" she asks.

"Yes, it's definitely real. It's the most real thing that's ever happened to me," he replies unable to keep the grin off his face or out of his voice.

"You know that multiple births tend to come early, and that there is a fairly good chance that I'll end up on bedrest before they do with triplets," she warns him.

"Yes, but let's not worry about it," he says.

"No, let's get prepared," she says, "I mean, this room is not ready for babies."

"Well, we're going to have a baby shower, and we don't want to get too much stuff, until we know what we have from that."

"Then we are going to have to have that soon. We need to get signed up for some birthing classes. We need to have some serious discussions about how we were going to parent."

"Honey, I was joking about teaching our children to beat up on each other," he says a bit alarmed about Sam's growing panic.

"I know you were, but we still haven't talked about anything besides you're going to be home with them. What if we don't agree on the ways to parent?"

"Honey, they are going to be babies when they first come. There is not a whole lot of controversy in that!"

She actually laughs at him, "Oh yes, honey there is. Like, are going to let them self-sooth, and are we going to bottle of breast feed, and how much tummy time are they going to get, and…"

He kneels down before the glider stopping it in the middle of it's motion, "Sam honey, I promise you it's all going to be fine. Let's just take a big breath right now, because you're starting to spin out of control on me."

She obeys him taking an exaggeratedly large breath in order to annoy him, it actually has the effect of calming her down though, although she would never admit it to him.

"See, you just had your first Lamaze class, and you aced it babe. One issue now. Only one."

"They don't have names yet. They are going to be here in a couple of months, and we don't even know how what we are going to name them," she complains.

He opens his mouth to offer something of an answer, but she puts her hand over his mouth, "And know, if you're about to offer some kind of a joke answer, you will be sleeping on the couch tonight. Also, be aware that any of the cutsie stuff where the names rhyme or all start with the same letter is going to totally destroy our children," she adds.

"Okay, you are not allowed to get on the internet about anything baby related anymore," he teases, "But I thought Bri, Eli, and Mia. It's not quite rhyming, but they do sort of have an eternal consistency."

"I like it, but I want longer names for all of them. Brianna, and Elijah are easy, but we have to think of something for Mia. I don't want her to be the only one without a longer name."

"It was originally short for Maria, does that work?"

She nods, "Bri is the feisty one right?"

"Of course!" he exclaims, "See, that was easy. We'll have this figured out in no time."

"That might have been the easiest part."

"Well, certainly easier than labor is going to be, now call up Janet and get her started on that baby shower of yours!"

-0-

"Welcome, you and your boyfriend can go sit over there," the overly cheerful Lamaze teacher says pointing to the only spot left in the room that is not taken.

"Husband actually," Jack supplies.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just assumed, because there was not a ring," the woman says gushing with an overabundance of apology.

"You know, I hadn't even thought about the fact that we didn't have them," Sam says holding up her naked hand.

The woman looks a little taken aback at how a woman could ever forget something like that, and Jack can't help but chuckle. He really doesn't know what kind of a woman Sam is. "We got married in another country that didn't really do the ring thing, and when he got back to the states we really didn't think about it, because we'd already been married for a while."

"Welcome to class," the woman says again with a smile that looks a little bit forced and frozen.

Sam sits down between his legs. "Thank you for doing this with me, Jack," she whispers.

"Of course, I'm not going to let my wife go to pregnancy classes without me," he whispers back stirring the hairs on her neck.

"I don't just mean the class. I mean the pregnancy. The marriage. I'm really glad that you're the one going through life with me."

His heart wells up inside him. There was still a part of him, no matter how small that was worried that now that she had her memory back she wasn't as excited about this as she had been before. He feels relieved that he seems to have been wrong about that. "I won't want anyone else to be having my babies either," he says.

The teacher gives them a glare that is clearly telling them to shut up. "You're corrupting me, Sir, I was a model student when I was in school," Sam whispers.

"Let's hope the kids take after you in their scholarly pursuits then," he whispers back.


	32. Rings

"You know what this reminds me of, Sam? The time that you made me confess all of my feelings for you, and then sat down in that lie detecting chair, and got away with saying almost nothing," Jack scowls at his wife.

"You don't have to do this. You could wait until after the babies are born, and I can do this with you, or we could go with more traditional rings."

"No, you want to have tattoos, we're going to get tattoos. You can't do it until after the babies are born, but we don't both have to wait that long. Just know that if you chicken out at the last moment I will hold it against you forever."

"Please. I'm not the one in danger of chickening out here. After, all this is not my first tattoo."

He'd almost forgotten. He hasn't known it existed until the other planet, and then there, he'd thought he was meeting her for the first time so nothing about her body could be a surprise to him. It should have been a surprise, her tattoo, but it had ways been a part of her.

"What does it mean?" he asks touching her hip bone where it rested beneath her clothes. "My mom's favorite flower," she whispers with a sigh. "I got it illegally when I was sixteen. It got infected, and I ended up having to ask dad to take me in. I think it was the maddest he ever got. He didn't punish me though. I think he figured the hospital visit was punishment enough."

"Well, he is going to be very disappointed that you didn't learn your lesson," Jack tells her.

"Hello, what kind of a tattoo are we thinking of getting?" the artist asks sitting down next to Jack.

"Well, my wife and I want matching rings. She's just going to have to wait until after our babies are born to her hers," Jack says. "You brought the pictures, right?" he asks.

Sam nods handing them over.

"Lovely," the artist replied, "I've always sort of loved this idea, but not many people do it. What was your inspiration?"

"We work at a job where we can't wear our rings at work," Sam explains.

"And this is a symbol of our love that can't be taken away from up," Jack pipes up. "Not even by divorce," he adds quietly causing Sam to take his hand and squeeze it.

"No way, you are definitely stuck with me! I would never be as foolish to let you get away like Sarah was."

-0-

"This really doesn't hurt that bad," Jack observes.

"You sound surprised. Your job has put you in the way of the worse pain that the universe has to offer, and you think that a tiny little needle is going to hurt?" Sam asks.

"Well, I've heard a lot of tough guys say that it hurts."

"If you're talking about Murry the process that was used to make his tattoo was a lot worse than this.

"I'm always looking for new methods, how was it done?" the tattoo artist asks.

Sam and Jack glance at each other, "It was done oversees, and I'm pretty sure that the methods that were used would never be considered legal here," Jack finally hedges.

"Well, what do you think?" the artist asks pulling her needle away from Jack's hand.

He holds it up, and slowly rotates it around grinning, "I love it. It turned out way more 3-D looking than I thought it was going to. What do you think Mrs. O'Neill?" He'd finally stopped calling her Carter after they'd been on Earth long enough that he'd gained a good chunk of his memories back, but he hadn't called her by his last name since back on that planet, the first night of their marriage. She gives him a kiss as his only answer.

The ring was done in gold ink. Not painfully melted gold poured into an open wound like Teal'c's, but ink that was the color gold. It did have a metallic and glittery sort of look to it though. From a distance it actually looked like there was a wedding band on his finger. Close up you could see that it was actually an optical illusion, almost like Penrose's stairs. The interlocking chains formed almost a riddle.

"This is way better than a ring," Jack tells his wife as his tattoo begins to be bandaged.

"I'm glad you think so, because I was thinking we should get more matching tattoos. Something to represent our kids."

"Maybe when they are older. I wouldn't mind doing something that represented each bit of their personality, but I feel like we have barely met them yet," he points out.

"You just want to make sure that I follow through with this set of matching tattoos before you let me put another one on you," she teases.

"Hey, a man can only let the woman he loves brand him so many times before he begins to be a little suspicious," he teases back.


	33. Baby Shower

Sam knows none of these people. Well, that isn't quite true. Cassie and Janet are of course familiar, and she knows most of the other woman at her baby shower well enough that she would say hi to them if she passed them in the corridor of the SGC. She's not even sure that she would recognize most of them if she saw them outside of that familiar environment. She's pretty sure the one in the corner is a complete stranger thrown in just to make her think that she's stupid.

She'd thought trying to explain to Teal'c why baby showers were a female only thing was painful, but right now she would gladly repeat that conversation if it meant that she got out of this situation. That was the thing about being between two worlds. She was always feeling alone in crowds of people. When you are the only girl in a room full of men you feel lonely, when you in a room full of women she still felt lonely, because these were not the people who had fought by her side.

Well, she'd fought Hathor with some of them, but that was one battle, and it was years ago.

"Major O'Neill," a voice next to her says. A deep baritone voice, one that belonged to HER Jaffa. She flingers her arms around him for a hug, feeling the tingling comfort of his Goa'uld. It's funny that something as horrible as that would come to feel like home to her when it was attached to HER Jaffa.

It's only when she pulls away from the hug that she notices that hat. Her grandmother had worn something similar to church each Easter Sunday.

"O'Neill informed me that males were allowed to attend such events if they donned appropriate headgear," Teal'c explains.

"I see," Sam says heeding her husband's frantic hand motions from behind the Jaffa not to give away the game.

In order to get the Jaffa to humiliate himself they had gone to the length of embarrassing themselves as well. Daniel is wearing his usual bonnie hat from missions, but it does have a pink bow attached the side. Jack is a pink baseball hat that has a slightly obscene advertisement for breast cancer research.

"I'm really glad you came," she whispers to her husband as she gives him a hug just as intense as she had her Jaffa.

"You are definitely not in this alone," he whispers back giving her a squeeze. As she goes over to hug Daniel she hears her husband says, "If they say 'baby' you remove a pin? Naw, this would make a perfect drinking game. Let's pour some shots."

Yeah, this party just became something she's a bit more comfortable with. It might be fun to be the sober one. Teal'c was the one who always had that pleasure, and now he would have a companion in it.

-0-

"I'm sorry about your party," Janet says the next morning.

"What are you talking about? It was great," Sam objects. For someone who has such a great poker face, she wasn't that great at pretending to have fun when she wasn't. It was something she was going to have to work on.

"Yeah, it was great after I called the boys to rescue the dead party," Janet says.

"Thank you for that," Sam says giving her arm a squeeze, "It's not your fault though. It's me. I don't have the skills needed to socialize."

"Honey, socialization shouldn't take work. It shouldn't require skills. It should be fun."

"It is, you know most of the time."

"When you are with the guys," Janet nods.

"Or you. I love our times together. I'm just not really the girly girl type."

"I hate to break the news to you Sam, but a lot of the things we do together are very girly girl."

"Yes, but it's different with you. I mean, you see me as the solider, and the Auntie to Cassie, and now the mom to three kids. You see the whole me. Sometimes when I'm around woman, especially when it's women that I don't know through the Air force, I feel like I have to give up on part of who I am. I have to pretend that the only part of me that there is is the girly part."

"I know what you mean, and when you are at work sometimes all you get to show is the warrior."

"I am really lucky to have someone in my life who is just as used to straddling both worlds as I am," Sam says giving her a hug. "Also one who has been a mother before, and can explain to me exactly what all of the baby stuff I just got is for!"

"Yeah, I've never been a mother of a baby, so you'd better ask that husband of yours. He's been a father before," Janet reminds her.

Sam nods seriously, "Janet, I'm serious here. You've seen me with Cassie, and you may not have ever been a mother to a baby, but you are a doctor. Is this something I can do? Are my kids going to be all right with me?"

"Oh my God Sam, of course you can do this! You're going to be amazing," Janet says actually laughing in her surprise that her friend would have doubts sever enough that she even had to ask the question.


	34. Normal?

Sam had always figured that people who talked about mind blowing sex were bragging or exaggerating. But, if the phrase wasn't already in common use she would have had to invent it for what happened to her each time that she and Jack came together. She lost herself for a minute. Didn't the French call it the 'little death'. Yeah, that was pretty much it.

"Sam," Jack says in a voice that's almost pleading. She curls herself into his chest in the way she knows he loves. He hums a little satisfied note before he continues talking, "Is this normal for you?"

"Oh, you want praise eh? Well, I'm usually not with it enough to talk after we finished but I can certainly summon up some praise to boast your ego…." She begins.

"Not about my ego," he interrupts, "I'm actually a little worried about it."

"Worried about really great sex? Did I hurt you?" she asks pulling away from the comfort of his body on hers so that she can examine him.

"No," he shakes his head, "It's not just about how amazing the sex is either. It's also about the frequency. I mean, you've been in relationships before. How often did you…?"

"Well, I've never been in something like this before. I've only had a few long-term things before, and the sex was not this good, and the guys were not as kind as you are. So yeah, it's a lot more than I'm used to, but that's a _good_ thing.

"I'd love to think it's just us that makes this different. It's just…I really loved Sara, Sam. I don't anymore you don't have to worry about it, but when I was married to her," he says now looking like he wished he hadn't brought it up.

"Jack, I am completely fine with the fact that you used to be in love with your ex wife," she tells him.

"Okay, well, it was a couple of times a week, not every night. It was good, even once in a while this good, but we were not knocking it out of the park every single night like this. I'm worried that there might be some lasting effects from the drugs involved."

"I'm going to try not to be insulted by the implication that if I am making you really happy in bed it must be alien influence," she says.

"Sam, it's not that. I could believe that you would have this sort of effect on me. I mean, you are young and hot, and Samantha fucking Carter," he waves his hand at her objection, "Yeah, I know Samantha O'Neill, but the statement still stands. I'm just a little worried about the effect that I'm having on you."

"Are you sure this isn't a lack of confidence?"

"Sam, I know the effect I have on women. This is not it. Not to mention the fact that I'm a lot older than the last time I was in the honeymoon phase with a woman."

"Please tell me that you're not suggesting we abstain from sex right now. The babies are going to be forcing that on us before long as it is."

"I think we need to talk to Janet about it."

"Really, you want me to go in and _complain_ to my best friend that my sex life is too good?"

"Well, if there is something wrong it must have to do with other planets, so it's not like we can just walk into a regular doctor's office, and ask them for advice. I'm sure she's going to be professional about it."

"Can't we just enjoy it if it is some lasting gift of the planet? I mean, we are enjoying the gift of our children, so it's kind of the same."

He is silent for a while, and she looks into his face a little worried at what she finds there. "If any part of our relationship is due to drugs I am not going to keep sleeping with you. I won't keep raping you, Sam."

"Jack, it's not…"

"If your ability to make decisions is compromised it absolutely is."

Sam can't stand the thought that she might be doing the exact same thing to Jack that he is accusing himself of. Still, there are other thoughts that she can stand even less, "So what if she does do some tests, and does find something. What if this whole marriage is based on a lie? What if she cures us, and we just go back to being people who see each other at work? What if she can't do anything about it, and we just spend the rest of our lives apart, but wanting to be together. You know that's not going to end well, because if the love is chemical based, but as strong as I feel it is right now I'll never be able to be with someone else. Hell, I'll never even be able to do a decent day's work for thinking about you. Not only that, our kids will be losing out on having both parents. That is a hell of a lot to risk, right there."

He runs his hand down her arm, "Sam, please, I can't stand the thought of hurting you. I can't keep living like this now that I've thought of it."

"Fine," she says crossing her arms before her, "We'll go talk to Janet in the morning, but I want to do this one more time," she says running her fingers down his chest in a way that raises each of his arrector pilli muscles to full attention.*

-0-

"Everything okay with the babies?" Janet asks closing the door to her office where two of her patients stand nervous enough that she can already guess this has to do with something a bit more personal and embarrassing.

"Yes, that's fine. Jack just has some concerns about how frequently we are intimate," Sam blurts.

Janet glares at the man, "A drop in libido is perfectly natural for someone as advanced in a pregnancy as Sam is, particularly a pregnancy which involves triplets."

Jack clears his throat, glad that the Doctor's glare is undeserved (this time at least), "Actually, the problem is a bit more in the other direction."

"Oh," Janet said a bit too taken aback to form any other thoughts.

"It's not that I'm not grateful. I am. I'm just a little concerned that it's a result of what happened to us on the planet. At first I was explaining it to myself as a result of all of those lovely pregnancy hormones times three, but that should be pretty much over by now, right? Besides, it doesn't do anything to explain my response."

"I'd like to think I was just that alluring, but I guess we should rule out the other terrifying possibility," Sam teases.

"Well, the two of you have both undergone complete bloodwork several times. I can promise you that there is not still a substance in your body or stored in any of your tissues that is making you act differently."

"But…" Jack says with raised eyebrows at the way that the good doctor is himming and hawing a bit.

"Well, it doesn't really rule out brain changes. There are some medicines which have been proven to have an effect on the brain even after the patient stops taking them. We also can't rule out the fact that you might have been exposed to old fashioned brainwashing. Both of you reported that your memory started at the marriage cabin. As close as we can figure, you'd been missing for most of a day before that happened. There is no way of knowing what happened to the two of you in the meantime," Janet says.

"So, what you are telling me is there is no way to know for sure if we're not still under the effects of that planet?" Jack asks with a face which is closer to panic than calm.

"We could do a functional MRI. The two of you would lay in the machine, and think about each other. It's not going to be what I would call definitive, but it will tell us if your brains have the same structure as before you left for the planet. Thankfully, we have plenty of MRI images to compare it to, because the two of you have had one done every time you've come back from off world."

-0-

"Well," Janet says slowly putting the images from their tests up on the screen. "There is a clear difference between today's reading, and the ones from before you left for the planet."

Sam's eyes well up with tears, and Jack turns to the wall with a face of impenetrable stone.

"I really don't think it means what you think it means. The area is related to love. It's lit up like a Christmas tree, to be sure, but it's not more lit up than some research studies where they had people think about loved ones. Honestly, in my professional opinion, the two of you are just in love."

"But there is no way to know that this isn't the result of brain tampering?" Jack asks.

"I suppose not. Look, if this had happened to two strangers on the street, and they were as lovery dovey after all of this as the two of you are, than I might think it was sort of weird, but the two of you do have a history. Maybe if I'd asked you to think about each other during a mission check-up we would have got lights years ago. There is really no way to know," Janet says.

Strangers. Most of the people in the Federation _had_ been complete strangers before they were thrown together Sam remembers. "Janet, all of the refuges that have come through here? How many of them stay with their partner after they remember what is going on?"

Janet smiles, "Oh Sam, that is why you're a genius. I know of two couples, out of a couple hundred that were moved here for medical treatment. In both cases, they were people who had been married for over a decade. They might not have stayed together if they had been earlier in their union when they stopped using the mind-altering drugs."

"So that's it then, Jack. It doesn't seem very likely that they used something on us, who were already hanging off each other on the dance floor, stronger than they used on their own people who only danced together out of reluctance. This means that we can be pretty sure that our decision to continue to be married, and to live together, and to love each other in every carnal sense of the world is made freely," she says taking his hand. She notices it's covered in sweat. As hard as this was for her, she knows that it might have been harder for him. She gives his hand a gentle squeeze.

"You're sure?" Jack asks the doctor.

She nods her head.

"Well, then I am a very lucky man, and I am sorry to bother you by worrying about my good luck," he says walking out of Janet's office with his wife in tow. When they are in the corridor he uses the hand that still connects them together to pull her next to him. He has a way of manhandling her a bit sometimes, and she likes it, a lot more than she'd like to admit.

"What do you say we slip out of here on our lunch break and enjoy our good fortune, now that I don't have any guilt to worry about with it."

"I don't know, Jack," she teases, "I wouldn't want you to think I was taking advantage of you with my abnormally big sexual appetite."

"Come on, soon there will be babies everywhere, and we'll never have sex again," he says with an exaggerated pout.

"Fine. I'll meet you at your truck at 11:45," she says pulling away from him in order to head to her lab.

He's not even nervous that she's going to be late. Sam might forget about eating lunch, but she didn't forget about sex.

*These words aren't as dirty as they sound. 😉


	35. Baby Boot Camp

"You know, I never would have volunteer to babysit if I knew that I was going to have to give up my Saturday to be trained on how to take care of a baby," Cassie says with an exaggerated eye roll.

"In your case, today's training is just birth control," Jack tells the teenager earing him an annoyed slap on his shoulder.

"This isn't just training. This is checking a system. It's a dry run. If this doesn't work, I am going to have to go back to the drawing board, and completely re-think my organization system for when the babies come," Sam declares.

"I think that whatever organization system we have in place when the babies come they are going to completely destroy it."

"Are we sure that your babies are going to need medical charts at home?" Janet says lifting a bright green clip board away from one of the cribs.

"It's not a medical chart. It's a care chart. You just record whenever the baby eats or throws up or needs a diaper change. That way we can remember what happened to which kid," she explains.

"What happens if an infant is placed in the incorrect cage?" Teal'c asks.

The comment earns a glare from Sam, but she quickly realizes that she doesn't have a hope of intimidating the Jaffa, and relaxes her glare, "They aren't cages, they are cribs, and no one is going to be putting the wrong baby in the wrong crib, because they will observe the color coding."

Color coding seemed to be the core of Sam's system. The bedding in each crib matched the clipboard attached to its side (safely out of baby's reach of course) and even the paper on the homemade form within.

There was a drawer for each child in the dresser, declared by brightly colored ribbons. Each one contained a monotone wardrobe. Green for Eli, red for Mia, and yellow for Bri. The last drawer contained nothing but onesies. That was Jack's doing. Whenever Sam had asked for his impute in the planning process he'd just advised her to buy more onesies.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just dress the kids in whatever is in arm reach?" Jack asks.

"No, because then when it's 3 am, and you're half asleep and you feed someone you'll never be able to figure out what chart to put it on. Now. We're going to do this drill, and you are all going to take it seriously," she says giving everyone but the Jaffa (who she had already established was immune to them) a glare. She's entered her final trimester now. With triplets that meant that she was probably not far enough from delivery, and her team, best friend, "niece", and husband were pretty much willing to do anything that made her feel ready for the babies.

Even go through baby boot camp on a Saturday morning.

"I am going to win the drill," Teal'c declares holding his automated baby proudly.

Sam walks over and adjusts the dial on the babies back, "That cockiness just got your baby moved up to the colicky setting. You want to try for crack baby?"

"I do not," the man says cradling the baby.

-0-

Later that evening, with all the simulated babies safely returned to the community center Sam had rented them from, Sam leans against Jack as they are watching TV. He runs his fingers through her hair in a way that he thought was gentle. He seems to have been wrong about that when he suddenly hears her start to cry.

"I'm so sorry!" I didn't mean to hurt you!" he exclaims.

"You didn't. I was just thinking about how nice this was."

"Ah, hormones," he mutters.

She turns to shot him a glare which reminds him that while you must be companionate about the fact that a pregnant lady is not in control of her emotions, you are never supposed to actually talk about how she isn't in control of her emotions.

"I'm sorry," he mutters. Sam sits up, and shuts off the TV. Feeling a serious conversation coming on he adds, "I'm really sorry."

"I was crying, because this was nice, and I'm going to miss it," she says.

"I know that we're going to be a lot busier when the babies come…" he begins.

"Jack, the only way that we get to have any sleep at all is if we follow the schedule where you go to bed just about when I come home, and then I take a bunch of feedings while you get your sleep, and then I got to bed as you get up. We're not going to see each other at all."

"Yeah, it's going to be like that for a while, but the babies are only going to need to be feed every few hours for a few months. Then things we gradually get better, and we'll see more and more of each other."

"It will be too late by then," she whispers.

"Too late?"

"Have you read the divorce statistics on parents of multiples?" she asks.

"Oh Sam, that is not going to happen to us!"

"Why wouldn't it? It happened to a lot of other people who didn't think it was going to apply to them. The stress and the lack of time together that comes from having three babies at once has been the ruin of many a solid marriage. We're not even that solid. Jack, we barely knew each other when we got together. Our relationship is not strong enough to get through this."

"Sam, we are going to be fine. We love each other, and we love these babies, and the rest of it is just work. You're a workaholic, and I'm…well, I'm not a workaholic, but I've seen the effects of not working on a marriage before, and I'm not about to let that happen with you. That stuff matters a whole lot more to our marriage than how many babies we have."

"Jack, I don't want to lose you," she whispers staring to cry again.

He pulls her, in that slightly rough way he has, back on top of him on the couch, and wraps himself around her in this way he has of making her feel safe. Safe, and wanted.

"We could get a night nurse so that we could see each other more at night," he offers.

"I don't want a stranger raising out babies."

"Then we could just rely on our friends for a few hours every week, or every other week to look after the babies. Have a little date night away from them, huh?"

"It feels really selfish," she sniffs.

"It's not selfish. If you are this worried about our family falling apart than it is in the babies' best interest to make sure that that's not going to happen. Okay? And on these date nights we're going to have to actually get out of the house. Lounging on the couch is not something that is going to happen when those little kids are around. Neither one of us are going to be able to stop ourselves from putting our oar in the boat unless we are out of sight."

"I like lounging on a couch."

"Then we can get a hotel and lounge on a bed," he says kissing her check.

"Bed," she says in a suggestive voice standing up, manhandling him for a change as she pulls him after her.


	36. The B Word

"Colonel O'Neill, please come to the infirmary, Colonel O'Neill, please report to the infirmary," the voice over the loudspeaker demands in a voice that is way too calm for Jack's liking. When someone is giving you news that shakes you this much you want them to be feeling at least a little bit of emotions as they do it.

He starts calling her name when he gets off the elevator on that level. So, Janet meets him before he even gets into the infirmary, "She's fine."

"Thirty-two weeks. That's a week before the average for triplets, and most of them have be in intensive care," he points out.

"Everything is going to be fine. I gave her something that will hopefully stop the labor. It's a bit early to know if it worked or not yet, but I'm sure it will be fine."

He looks past her clearly not willing to believe it until he sees it with his own eyes. Janet leads him to the bed where Sam is laying in the recovery position, doing the pain reduction breathing she learned at Lamaze. It's not exactly a comforting sight to him.

She holds out her hand, "I'm sorry they told you like that. If I knew you were going to panic I just would have had get an Airman to go look for you. She tried calling your office, but…"

"You know I'm rarely in my office," he scolds.

"I know, and you weren't in the gym either."

"I need a pager," he grumbles.

"I'm on bedrest," she says with a sigh. "I'm going to be eating up my maternity leave before these babies even enter the word."

"It's okay Sam, we'll figure out the whole child care thing," he comforts.

"I wanted to be with them Jack. I wanted the first month and a half to be mine," she whines.

He sits down next to her, "You could use up all the leave you've saved up. I know you never went on vacations before we were together. That's got to be a fair amount."

She nods, "Still, I'll hopefully be on bedrest for weeks before they come, and any way you slice it that turns out being less time with my kids."

"Sam, you are going to be spending so much time with the kids. I mean nights, weekends, those random days off you get when you work 24 hours day after day on one of those long missions. They are going to be our whole lives so soon. You're going to be glad to have a chance to get a little break from them."

"I am going to be so bored just lying in bed for weeks!' she exclaims in despair.

"That's why I moved the TV into our bedroom weeks ago. So, you wouldn't have to be bored!" he explains helpfully.

"I won't be able to work. I won't be able to ride my motorcycle…"

He opens his mouth to point out that she hasn't done that since she'd gotten pregnant, but a glare from his wife quickly freezes the words on his mouth.

"I'm not even going to be able to clean the house! The babies are going to come home to a house that looks like it has been hit by a hurricane."

"I'll clean the house, Sam."

"Yeah, right, you never clean."

"I clean when it results in my wife being happy or my babies being safe. It's going to be just fine. You just make a list of things you want me to do, and…"

"You should be able to figure out what needs to be cleaned in a house without someone having to make you a list. Honestly, you did live on your own before you met me."

"Yes, but only for a couple of years. You've met my mother right? She didn't exactly teach me how to do a lot of chores when I was a boy. I mean, can you image how scandalized she'd be by a teenage boy actually doing housework? Then Sara came along, and she told me what I was supposed to do. At first she yelled it at me when we were in the middle of a fight, but then after we'd figured out this was one of our main issues she started writing it down. Besides Sam, you're pretty particular, and if you don't give me a list I am pretty sure that I'm not going to do things exactly how you want them done."

"Fine, I'll make you a list," she says crossly.

"Good, it will give you something to do all those hours when you are in bed with nothing to do," he teases.

She _wants_ to shoot him another glare, she really does, but she can't. Damn him anyway, he managed to cheer her up against her will.

-0-

"And we have breakfast in bed!" Jack declares carrying a tray into the bedroom. His attempt to place the tray over her stomach doesn't end well however. "Well, I made a mistake in buying that," he mutters.

"It's fine. It will work for all the many breakfasts in bed you bring me after the babies born," she teases taking the tray from him to set up beside herself, and giving him a quick kiss.

"I've got another surprise for you before I head off to work," he says disappearing out the door, and returning a few seconds later.

"Movies?" she asks looking at the covers of the DVDs, "Please tell me you didn't just bring your Simpson's seasons in here."

"No, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit if you did watch them," he says, "I got you really bad science fiction."

"Umm…. Thank you?" she says not quite understanding.

"I thought you could make a list of all the things that they got wrong in the movies," he offers with a grin on his face, "It might even feel like work if you try hard enough."

"You're so sweet," she says in a mildly sarcastic voice.

"I know," he chirps, "Is there anything else I can get you?"

She shakes her head.

"I'm going to stop in at lunch to check on you, and make you food."

"You know I am allowed to get out of bed every now and again, this whole b-rest thing doesn't have to be kept to religiously."

"I know, but the better job you do of it the longer it will probably be until the babies are born, so let's both try the best we can."

"Way to put on the pressure and the guilt," she mutters.

"I'm sorry. Sam, I know that you don't really have control over when these babies are born. We are taking all of these precautions to try to make it be later, but if they come now it wouldn't be because we'd done anything wrong."

"I know," she says smiling.

The he leans forward to talk to her stomach, "Now, you listen to your mother, and remember that you are grounded until you at least pass that full-term line. I mean it, not leaving that womb for any reason."

Sam muses that she's glad laugher isn't a labor trigger.


	37. Arrival

Jack was at work when labor started again, and Sam didn't trust his ability to drive when he was in full panic mode. Besides, it would have taken twice as much time for him to drive from the base to their house, get her, and then drive back. She wasn't even sure if Janet was going to attempt to stop the labor when she arrived or not. She is only three weeks before her due date, which is about the best you could hope for when it comes to the birth of triplets.

So, she goes next door and gets Mrs. Swann to drive her to the base. The sweet old woman is not alarmed by the labor at all, and offers a mixture of motherly birthing advice and distracting stories in a calming voice during the drive.

Sam's water breaks about half way there, and she starts to cry half from the worry that she's going to have to deliver her own triplets in the back of an old lady's car, and half out of humiliation that she had just made a mess in the car.

"Samantha, I had three boys. I can assure you that what just happened is not the worse thing that back seat has seen. There is a good chance that one of my grandbabies was conceived back there."

"I'll help you clean it up when we get there," Sam says.

"Bah! No, you won't! You'll get right in and have your babies. You leave this too me. I don't plan on this being the last time that I clean up after your little ones."

The getting right in to have the babies proved to be more difficult than either one of them had imagined at first as well. Of course, Edna Swan had nothing by way of security clearance or even a family pass, and so they had to wait for someone to vouch them on.

It only took five minutes, which might have been a world record for the process, but to the two woman it seamed eternal. Then there was another security checkpoint just a bit farther on, but Jack had already called ahead to this one, apparently seconds after getting off the phone with the first one.

Jack met them in the parking lot. He gave the older woman a quick hug, before pulling his wife out of the car.

"My water broke, Jack, they're coming today."

"And we're ready for them Sam," he assures her. His voice sounds more confident than she's felt since her memory had returned, and with it the knowledge of just how difficult it was going to be to raise three children.

-0-

"Baby is in fetal distress," a doctor declares. Sam doesn't even know the name of the doctor, she thought that she was going to know the names of everyone who was involved in her surgery.

"Which one?" she demands.

"We've got to get her out of there," a nurse declares completely ignoring her.

"Janet!" Sam calls not even being able to see her friend in the jumble of people around her.

"It's okay Sam, they're just going in for the smaller girl. Her heartbeat is a little worrying. It's a problem if we don't get her out of there fast, and that's why we're going in after her."

"Jack?" Sam says wondering why her husband is out of sight on the other side of the cloth looking at her stomach.

"Sam, I'm looking at your organs right now!" Jack declares.

"Well stop it, and get over here, and comfort me," she says.

"Sam, I really want to see the babies right when they come out, can I please stay over here?" he begs.

"Damn it, I'm about to be completely over run with puppy dog eyes, what am I going to do?" she whines.

"Baby number one," the mystery doctor declares, and a pale blood covered mass rises above the blanket shielding Sam from the surgery taking place on her.

"Cry baby," Sam pleads.

Jack looks on frozen as a doctor and two nurses disappear with the still silent baby over to a table.

"Go with Mia, Jack," Sam commands.

"I don't want to get in their way," he says looking torn between obeying his wife and following her own instincts. She gives him a little node of assent so that he won't feel guilty no matter how it turns out.

"Baby number two," Janet says.

This one lets out a cry right away, and Janet puts him in his father's arms. Jack starts crying, and bouncing the baby.

Then Mia starts to cry, the whole room seams to breath collective breath of relief. One of the nurses that had been swarming around the infant comes to take Eli form his father's arms.

"Baby number three," Janet says holding up Bri.

"Are they all okay?" Sam asks.

"Right now, everything looks fine. Give us some time to get you more details," Janet says offering her friend a smile as she gives the last child to a nurse, and returns her attention back to the surgery she is doing on her best friend.

-0-

Sam didn't even remember falling asleep, but it must have been not long after the surgery. She woke up with a start yelling, "Mia!" She attempted to sit up quickly, which resulted in a shooting pain through her stomach that she couldn't understand right away.

"Take it easy Sam. You don't want to rip out those stitches that Janet worked so hard on. You know how she gets when you do that."

"At least I wouldn't have ripped them out while trying to flee the infirmary, so she would probably be a whole lot less mad at me than she gets at you."

"Fair point," he smiles.

"Jack, our kids?" she asks pressing his hand more than a little concerned that he is using all of this small talk as a way to distract her, and very unnerved by the fact that he's with her instead of with the newborns.

"They are doing fine."

"Really Jack? Because the fetal distress, and the not breathing…"

"They are being closely monitored. The two little ones are incubators. Brianna was five pounds six ounces, so she just barely made it over the cut off, but they are still keeping a close eye on them."

"It's not that I don't trust the doctors and nurses, Jack, but they are our kids, and you should be in there watching them."

"I've been in there several times, Sam, don't worry, and it's only been about an hour since their birth. I just wanted to check on you as well. You have just had surgery."

"Jack, they are babies. They should have family with them."

"They do, at least, depending on your definition of family. Daniel is absolutely obsessed with Mia. He hasn't let her out of his sight. He keeps stroking her little belly through that big glove thing they have in the incubator, because he's just convinced that it's going to make her get strong. Teal'c he's doing a great job as a bouncer to keep all those 'humans carrying multiple pathogens away from the newborn infants'."

"Who exactly is he chasing away?"

"The entire SGC, Sam, the entire SGC wants to see our kids. General Hammond has installed himself as guardian of the male child. The man was blessed with daughters and granddaughters, and I think he is trying to make up for his lack of sons by borrowing our kid."

"Yeah, he's probably going to do that quite a lot if how he was with my brother Mark when we were little, and Dad was stationed at the same base as him is anything to go by. What about Bri? Just because she's a little bigger than the rest, and she's not in an incubator doesn't means she shouldn't…"

"Cassie," Jack declares. "I was in there ten minutes ago, and none of them would even let me hold my own children."

"I'm glad they are loved," Sam says with a smile.

"Me too, and there will be plenty of time for us to hold them when the new excitement wears off."

"I want to hold them now," Sam says, "In fact, I want to try to feed them. Did any of them inherit the awful O'Neill curse of teeth?"

"You know, I didn't check, Sam," Jack says with a giggled, "But I have always suspected that my mother was exaggerating a lot when it comes to those stories. Like, I'm sure we had teeth early, but I don't think it was at birth, and half the problem was that she breastfed like forever. She was into attachment parenting before attachment parenting was cool."

"I want to see my babies," Sam says again trying to sit up farther in the bed.

"Let me go get Janet to see if they want to move you over to the kids or the kids over to you."

-0-

A few minutes later, Sam is settled in a chair next to two large incubators and one bassinet holding her tiny four-pound daughter.

"She's not eating," Sam says.

"It's not terribly surprising given her size, and how close to the birth she is. Let me try to help," Janet says kneeling beside her friend.

"Maybe we should just use a bottle. I wasn't planning on breast feeding exclusively anyway. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to produce enough milk for all of them."

"I don't think we should give up quite yet. There are a lot of things in the very first batch of milk that just isn't in formula."

Sam nods swallowing hard, "It's just, she wouldn't breath, and now she won't eat…" and starts crying.

"Sam, I promise you, that we are not losing this baby over this. Okay. I will keep nourishment in that kid no matter how I have to do it. She's a couple of hours old, give her some time," Janet says.

"Why don't you start with the chubby one?" Jack says carefully switching her daughters. They'd practiced switching the babies in their arms many times, with dolls, and right now all of Sam's drills were looking justified.

Bri easily grabs on, and starts drinking.

"Well, all that time beating up her siblings in the womb seemed to have done her some good," Jack chuckles.

"Not a great joke, honey," Sam says with venom in her voice belied by the last "honey" comment.

"Sam, we had three babies today. All of them reasonably healthy. You can stop doing all of that worrying you did the whole time you were pregnant with them. We did it. We made it."

"I'll stop worrying when they go off to college," Sam declares.

"Oh, it's funny that you think that. I mean, Cassie isn't in college yet, but I'm pretty sure I am going to worry about her a lot more when she is than when she is right where I can keep my eyes on her. Did you know she started popcorn on fire last week? I do not mean that she burnt the popcorn I mean that she literally started it on fire."

"Mom, you swore that you weren't going to tell anyone about that!" the teenager moans turning from her position facing the wall for the first time since Sam started to breastfed the babies.

"Well, the people who were seriously considering letting you take care of their babies needed to know," Janet says with a shrug.

"I can still babysit, right? I swear I won't try to make any popcorn."

"I think we will be more than happy to have you over doing child care. Solo care of three kids is too much for you, and we said that long before the ill-fated popcorn incident," Jack reminds her.

"Oh I know, but just wait until you're a couple of weeks in, and then you'll be more than happy to let me take the little monsters off of your hands," Cassie says confidently.


	38. Homecoming

Jack's mother waited a whole week after they were born before flying down to meet her grandbabies. This was more or less against her will, but Jack and Sam made very persuasive arguments on the phone about how two, and then one of the babies was still in the hospital. It would be far better for her to come and help out when they were all home.

Still, she arrived two days before little Mia made it out of the hospital.

Jack went to pick her up from the airport, all the while listening to the usual complaints about how he didn't have time to do that, being a new father and all.

"You are going to be saving us a lot of time when you get there, so it's really an investment in the future," he'd muttered. He then laughed at his own joke, thinking himself really witty. It was only when he looked at his mother he realized that this must be another side effect of sleep depravation.

"Why don't I drive, sweetie?" she asks softly.

"That might be for the best," he admits tossing the keys to her.

"Honey, how much sleep have you gotten?"

"Not enough to do the math on that Mom, but we're fine."

"I can stay as long as you need me to," she says.

"I appreciate that mom, but at some point we are going to have to take care of them by ourselves."

"I can come to live with you, Jack, for a couple of years if that's what you need."

"What?" Jack asks peeping at her from beneath his half open eyelids, "are you and Dad having some sort of trouble?"

"No, but we talked about it, and…we want to help you get through it."

"I appreciate that mom, but I'm pretty sure that Sam is not going to go for it. She's pretty big on us doing the child raising alone."

"She might just change her mind when she finds out how much work it is," she points out.

"I think we already know how much work it is, mom."

"It's only been a couple of weeks, and you don't even have all of them home from the hospital. I don't think you have any idea how much work it is going to be, Jack."

"Well, I'll keep your offer in mind, mom," he promises.

-0-

It wasn't until Jack went back to work, and his mother went back to Chicago, that Sam started to break.

It was the second day that she counted how many more days it would be before her maternity leave was over, and they would be Jack's problem for the biggest part of the day.

One the fifth day she had counted up the hours.

On day six she spent more than an hour crying (in unison with at least one, and at one point in the hour all three of her babies). She dried her eyes, and plastered a big fake smile on her face by the time that Jack came home though.

On day seven she wasn't able to put the smile back on her face by the time that he came home.

"Jack, I don't think that I can do this. They are just…crying all of the time, and it's not fair. It's not fair to them. They deserve to be well taken care of. You know, babies are developing their lifelong psychology right now. When they are hungry, and they are not getting feed, because I am taking care of one of their siblings, they are learning that the world is not worth trusting."

"It's also possible that they're learning empathy, and patience," Jack says.

"They are too young to learn that, Jack."

"My mom offered to live with us," he says quietly.

"We can't ask her to do that. She has her own life, and she wasn't the one who decided to have these kids."

"To be fair, we didn't really decide to have these kids either. At least not when we were in our right minds. Besides, we're not asking her to do this. She already offered. She would love it. You know how she feels about the kids."

"I still won't feel right about it. I would feel like I was taking advantage of her."

"We could also hire help," he offers.

"Well, I would feel even weirder about that."

Jack knows exactly how to get her to really consider his mother's offer. He hated to bring out the big guns unless he really had to though, "I guess then we're just going to have to let our babies cry it out, and develop a mistrusting view of the world."

"I'll think about it okay?" she ask getting up to switch the baby that had fallen asleep in her arms for one that still needed a feeding.

-0-

When Jack returns to work the next night he sees Sam in the middle of a pile of laundry that is terrifyingly large.

"I tried really hard today. I thought if I just really stuck to the schedule, and really just did my very best parenting and cleaning than everything would turn out okay. It didn't. Jack, I just can't do this anymore. So, you can go ahead and invite your mom to live with us. Make sure she knows that we don't actually have a room for her, just a pull-out couch, and that we have no idea for how long it is going to be. If she still really wants to, and I don't mean is willing to because we really need her to be, but really and truly wants to than she can come out and live with us."

"I'm glad you decided on this," Jack says with a smile for his wife.

"And after that you can do a few loads of laundry," she tells him.


	39. Date Night

Jack started counting down the number of days that were left at his job the second that he got off paternity leave. He couldn't stand the thought of leaving his three babies each day to go off to work, and when he had to go off world things were even more unbearable.

Once his mother moved in things got a whole lot better. With two adults at home with the babies all day he felt a lot less like he was abandoning his children, and his wife was a whole lot less stressed when he came home at the end of the night.

He still missed them though. It was hard to believe people who were so small, and whose skills pretty much consisted of eating, sleeping, and pooping, could have such a pull on a human heart.

It wasn't until his very last day of work that he really started to realize how much he was going to miss his _job_. It was bittersweet to clean out his office at the very end of his workhours, and walk out of the SGC for what he knew would be the last time.

Later that night, as his wife sleeps (preparing for her first day back after her extended maternity leave) and he and his mother sit side by side feeding babies, she asks, "Jack, are you sure that you really want to leave your job to take care of babies?"

"I really am, Mom," he says.

She shakes her head as if she can still not believe it, "It's just not something that a man would have done in my day."

"Well, mom, thinks have changed a lot since you were young."

"I just find a hard time believing that you are going to be happy with this decision."

"It feels pretty good right now," he says lifting a baby up on his shoulder to give it a burping.

"Well, of course. But is it going to last? You might be happy with a break for a while, but before long you are going to want to be back."

"I don't know about that. Do you regret all the years that you stayed home and raised babies?" he asks.

"Of course not," she says quickly looking at him with a guilty look which easily reveals her answer to be a lie.

"Don't lie to me mom, just because you think that's what I want to hear. I won't be offended in the least if you tell me that there were times you wished you could have talked to other adults or did something that gave your mind a bit of a challenge."

"There were times. You know when one of you asked to have the same book read to you the millionth time, or when you came in from outside and you were covered in mud, and tracked it across the floor right after I'd mopped, and I couldn't even mop again right then because you needed a bath first before you went on to destroy the house. There were so many times when I felt like all I did was clean, or when I felt like I was just covered in bodily fluids, and I wondered what it was all for."

"So, you are just trying to protect me from regretting staying home like you did," Jack says.

"No, I don't regret it. Now, with all sorts of years behind me I know what all of it was for. It wasn't easy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."

"I think it is going to be the most important adventure that I've ever been on, and I don't think that I am going to regret it at all either.

-0-

"So, what exactly do you want to do with our first ever date night?" Jack asks as soon as Sam returns home from work. He finds himself really hoping that the face she is wearing is related to work, and will wear off as the night continues. They had planned to have date night every day since the babies were born, but it got delayed one day after the other, after the other. Now their children are more than two months old, they have live in help with the kids, and date night has still not arrived.

"You're going to hate me but…" Sam begins.

"No, I'm not going to hate you. But we are going to get out of the house. We are going to have some time in which we don't think about babies. At all, even a little bit."

"Jack, you know what I really want? I want to go to the gym."

"Okay, that sounds like a fun date night," he says grinning at her.

"No. I want to go alone," at the sight of her face falling she rushes on, "I love you. You know that, but the two of us go to the gym together, and we're going to spar. That's fun when it's like a prequal to sex, but I really still don't feel like having sex with you."

"Sam, date night does not equal sex night," he interrupts.

"I know, but I have lost 0 pounds since the kids were born. In fact, I actually gained a pound."

"Are you kidding me, Sam? You are the most beautiful woman in the world. A little extra weight has done nothing to change that."

"It's not a little extra weight, Jack, at this point I'm not even sure I could pass my physical."

"Which is why they air force doesn't make you take the physical for a while after you've had kids. If you feel like you need an extension after that I can talk to Hammond…"

She puts her hand on his arm, "Jack, I don't feel like myself anymore. I know that Cassie is coming over to help your mom with the kids so we can be together. I feel like an awful person, but I would just rather spend tonight at the gym working out."

He giggles, "Honestly, I would love a couple hours where another human being does not touch me."

"Oh my God, I know I shouldn't say they are clingy, because they are babies, and babies are supposed to cling, but…" Sam says with an eye roll.

"I know, always with the touching, and the holding," he says. "I think I might go on the roof and look at the starts for a few hours. Mmm…or take a nap."

"You're not mad about this? I mean, I really don't want our relationships to be one of those that goes down the tubes, because we didn't take time for ourselves in the midst of the babies."

"I think the fact that we were able to have this conversation means that we're not in trouble in the communication area," he says with a smile.

"Okay, and next week on the day we have Cassie coming over we are going to have date night for real. I am going to start working out over my lunch break at work. I've sort of given up ever really getting caught up on the things I missed when I was on my maternity leave. There is always more work. I'm pretty sure it's reproducing behind my back."

"Well, and on the days that you don't get a chance to go over lunch you can just do it after work and come home a little later. Guilt free, Sam. You get to be a person even with babies."

"Deal, as long as you start going over to Daniel's house when you watch the Simpsons, so you don't end up feeding or changing someone while watching."

"Oh my God, that sounds amazing," he says forgetting his exhaustion with physical contact long enough to give her kiss.


	40. Anniversary

"Mommy is home!" Sam declares coming through the door of the house. Her children are not yet six months old, but they recognize her words or her voice, or maybe a combination of the two, and it has the power to elicit excited giggles that warm Sam's heart in a way that nothing else on this planet (or any other) can.

Tonight however, she is greeted by her husband who gives her a mind-blowing kiss followed kiss followed by the correction, "Sam is home."

"Are the kids napping?" she asks confused as to why they didn't respond to her. If Jack had answered yes it would have been just as much as a shock however, because their children had not all been napping at the same time since they were born.

"Mom took them for a long walk with stops at the library and the park. They won't be home for a few hours."

"Okay," Sam says still confused. Then she sees the candlelight dinner.

"I thought, since we're still pretty inconsistent about getting out of the house for date night I would bring the date night to us. We wouldn't want to miss it on a special occasion like this."

"Special occasion? The kids aren't six months, are they? What day were they born on?"

"Candlelight dinner without kids says baby birthday to you? You will not be planning their six month birthday…next week. Today is our anniversary."

"Wedding anniversary?" she asks clarifying and shocked.

"Yes," he agrees.

"I forgot our wedding anniversary? Well, it's official, I'm the man in this relationship. I'm so sorry Jack!"

"It's okay. I mean, the wedding was off world, so you had to do some math to figure out when it was. Even then I'm not 100% sure that I got the time right. For all I know I missed it yesterday, or you haven't missed it because it's tomorrow."

"That's for making me feel better, but I'm a sucky wife."

"No way," he says pulling out the chair and wiggling his eyebrows at her until she sits down. Even though it's more of a plop even then.

"Seriously. It's been almost six months since we had the kids? When I think about how infrequently we've had a conversation or…sex in the last six months. Half our marriage Jack! We've been distracted for half our marriage!"

"Sam, this is really just a stage in our lives, and its's going to be over before we know it. Before long we are going to be longing for the times when our kids were babies who could be stopped by a baby gate," he says taking the seat across from her.

"Or a large pillow thrown in front of them," she reminds him.

"Right. We're going to look back at all the times we've fallen asleep in our bed with one or more babies on our chests as…as the best things ever. There will be plenty of time for candlelight dinners later."

"You're probably right," she nods, "In fact, I'm not sure we have time for both dinner and sex, so…"

Jack blows out the candle and pulls her up from the chair quickly.

-0-

"Please tell me that you did not teach our daughter that," Sam says shooting her husband a quick glare as she stands up to scoop Bri away from her brother.

"You mean did I teacher the daughter who we know was hitting her siblings in the womb to hit her brother? No."

"All right, while as the parent who spends the most time with them, are you trying to teacher her not to?"

"Well, I tell her not to, but she's a little young for English. I'm a little fuzzy on how to discipline babies. Even if I believe in hitting a six-month-old, it probably would not send the message to her to stop hitting."

"No, I don't want you hitting out kids," she says.

"So…" he prompts.

"So, we just move her away and hope she begins to understand language really young, so we can start reasoning with her" Sam says pulling her daughter onto her lap, "Like maybe today? Mommy?" she asks.

"Now, you're just confusing her. Don't listen to her, Bri. You're not the Mommy she is," Jack teases.

Eli crawls up to his father, and makes a clumsy attempt to crawl onto his lap, "You're right little man. There is no reason for both parents to be paying attention to one child. Not when there are three children around. We can spread the attention out a little bit."

"I got a message from my dad at work today. He's got some leave, and he was wondering if he could come and stay with us for a few weeks."

"Well that's perfect timing. Mom wants to go home for about a month. I mean, she's given up half a year for us now."

"She knows how much we appreciate that, right?"

"Well, she should, I tell her every day," Jack says bouncing his son on his knee.

Sam tilts her head pondering. If her mother-in-law suggested heading home for a bit that might be an idea they want to expand on, "We've got two babies sleeping through the night already. They are following their schedule pretty well, so that we don't end up with three babies screaming bloody murder for a feeding time very often anymore. Of course, I'm not the one that is home with them all of the time, so I'm not really the one who should be making the call about when we're ready to let the extra help go."

"I am willing to try it on our own. I think things might get harrier down the road when they get more mobile. We might want to save up all of our help for then."

Sam wraps her arm around her husband, "Jack, you don't regret giving up your career for them, do you?"

"I regret not doing it for Charlie, Sam. It's…" he looks down.

"You can say whatever you want about it, Jack. My Mommy guilt over choosing to work isn't going to get any worse."

"I don't want you to have any guilt about choosing to work Sam. Taking care of these babies is both the hardest and the best thing I've ever done. I love it, even though it wears me down. It might be different though, if I was as young as you. I think…I think doing a job, being really good at some job, I think it is something that everyone needs to do in their life. I don't think taking care of kids would have left me feeling whole and fulfilled if it was all I'd ever done."

"I really don't think I'd be happy as a stay at home mom. And I think my unhappiness would start to affect them. I just want you to know, Jack. After your mom goes back we can look at part time day care to give you a couple of hours break or something. Or get one place in day care, and then just rotate the kids through so everyone gets a turn every third day, and you only have two kids at once."

Jack smiles, "I love your plans, but we're not there…yet. We'll see if any of their baby talk sounds like technobabble first."

Mia has crawled over to her parents, seeing the games that her siblings get to play, and wanting to join. Sam pulls her onto her lap, and then leans her head against her husband's shoulder, "I do love this though. This being a mom thing."


	41. Pa!

"Sammy, it has been too long since I saw you," Jacob says enveloping his daughter in one of his patented bone crushing hugs.

"I'm glad to see you too, Dad. I wanted to bring all the babies to meet you at the gate, but Jack gave me this look when I suggested it, and then started muttering about car seats and applesauce, so you're going to have to wait a little longer to meet your new grandbabies."

"Car seats are a special kind of torture which pretty much ensures that kids don't get to go very many places until they are older," Jacob agrees. "I'm not quite sure why your husband is so against applesauce, but with three kids I'll venture to guess he's got a good reason."

As the two of them get in the elevator the former General examines his daughter critically. The

exhausted sleep deprived look isn't as bad as he thought it would be with three kids. She's just wearing the same slightly tired workaholic look she used to wear before she was married, and had kids.

"Are you happy, kid?" he asks.

A grin curls the corners of her mouth without her having any conscious control over it. "I didn't know happiness like this could exist. Like, do you understand how cute my children are? And my husband…" she sighs, "Really happy."

"Good," Jacob says with a smile.

-0-

"What the hell is that smell?" Jacob asks later that evening as the three adults try to get the babies all ready for bed.

"Don't swear around little ears," Sam scolds while her husband answers, "Mia's diaper."

"It smells like a volcano eruption. No way that came out of a human being, let alone one so small and cute," Jacob objects.

"Volcanic eruption is actually a really good way to describe it, and it definitely came out of someone so small and cute. You might as well put her in the tub to change the diaper. I'll go get the bleach to clean it after," Sam says.

"How about I get the bleach," her father offers with a grin on his face.

"It's fine. I think Jack, and I have dealt with this sort of thing enough that it doesn't have the effect on us it would on others. It is a bit traumatic the first time," Sam agrees reaching out her hands to take the baby from her father.

"Pa," the child says turning her head into him.

"First words? Did we just get first words?" Sam asks bouncing up and down.

"It only counts if she consistently refers to him as that," Jack points out. He stretches out his hands to try to take the little girl from her grandfather again.

"Pa!" the girl wails clinging to him desperately.

"You little minx. Half a year old, and you are already using your cuteness to get what you want out of other people," Jacob mock scolds as he carries the girl over to the bathtub.

"She used her _intelligence_ to get what she wanted," Sam corrects.

-0-

"Who got them sick?" Sam whines as she rocks two screaming infants. "We were so careful about the germ-free thing."

"We managed to make it seven months without anyone getting sick, with premature kids. Sam, I think we're just going to have to face the music on this one, and count ourselves lucky that it didn't happen a long time before now," her husband says with his 'I'm trying to be patient and it's hard for me' voice that he usually only uses on his children.

"You don't understand. We were going to keep them germ free forever. It was the only way we could really handle this many children. When they are all healthy and in a good mood we have a chance, now with some of them sick…"

"Why won't they stop crying?" Jack interrupts her to lament, in a good impression of a baby cry himself.

"I think they have an ear infection," Jacob muses. "Mark had one when he was little. It didn't look exactly like this, but sort of…"

"What, then we rush them to the emergency room? We rush them to the emergency room, and the doctors give them a pill which makes them stop crying, and hurting and crying?" he looks up hopefully at the older man.

"I'm afraid not, Sir," Jack blinks at the word coming out of her mouth. She hasn't called him sir in a really long time. Then again, she also hasn't slept in a really long time. It's actually kind of hard to determine if she even knows who he is at this point, "90% of ear infections go away on their own."

"You're kidding, they don't give meds for ear infections anymore?" Jack asks horrified.

"Well they do, but that doesn't mean that we should give them to our kids. It contributes to antibiotics becoming less efficient, because of…."

"Excuse me…are you telling me that there is something that could make our babies feel better, and you're not going to give it to them, because of science?"

"It would be irresponsible of us to do that. If they ear infections don't go away within a week…"

"Are you kidding me Carter? None of us are going to survive a week of this! We've barely made it through the night. Jacob, you going to help me take the kids in?" Jack asks glaring at his father-in-law in such a way that the general is actually more intimidated than he would like to admit.

"Against my daughter's wishes? No thanks. I got a snake in my head so that I could live. I'd hate to screw up a plan like that with a fool hearted decision," Jacob replies.

"Great. I'll be in the waiting room all alone with three screaming infants," Jack says hoisting himself off the ground, and carrying his son into the bedroom where he clearly intends to pack for the trip without any help.

"Jack, I'm going to help you," Sam says.

"Why, you don't agree with the decision?"

"No, but I also don't think it's going to hurt the kids. I get why sitting here and doing nothing when our kids are in pain is so hard for you. I want them to feel better too. Even though it only has a 10% chance of helping, and will hurt society," she shrugs, "Besides, you really can't take three sick kids to the doctor alone."

"I really can't," he says with pleading eyes.

"Also, you don't know about the emergency bag," she points out grinning.

"What?"

"It takes us so long to get ready for things that I have an emergency bag packed," she says opening up a closet he had never looked in, because it was called the "linen closet" and he had no interest in such things.

"There are so many times that I could have used it. You should have told me that it existed."

"No, you'd just go pillage it to go to the park or something. Then when we really needed it, like now, it would be in the same state as every other bag in this house. Chaos."

"You know, Sam, I love your planning abilities," he says giving her a quick kiss before throwing the bag over his shoulder, and heading to the car. "Besides, now I know where the bag is."

"It's cute that you don't think I'm going to move it the very next time you sleep."

"It's cute that you think I'll ever be able to sleep again."


	42. Popular

The base is in lock-down. Some contagion that might just wipe out the world. Sam should probably be worried about it. But she's not. Because the fact that she can't actually get onto the base means she has a random day off in the middle of the week.

Usually when this happens she's already on the base. Usually it's her that has to save the whole world. It's kind of nice that's it's someone else's turn, actually.

Besides, this means that she gets to spend a few extra hours with her family, which is always something that she welcomes in her life.

When the weather is nice, Jack always takes the kids to the park after their nap. He's big on the outdoors, and even though he's not willing to undergo the organizational nightmare that is traveling with triplets to say take the kids to the store, he's more than happy to undergo it if it means they get a bit of experience with nature.

She doesn't even head home, but just heads right to the park.

Then she sees it. Her husband surrounded by a crowd of admiring women. Each one of her babies is being held by someone else, and her husband has two kids on his knee, both boys about five or six, and clearly entertained by whatever story he's telling them.

Next to him on the bench is a golden retriever who is also awarding him with his rapt attention.

She maneuvers so she's approaching her husband from the back. She catches Mia's eye, and the baby winks in such a way that if she wasn't just eleven months old Sam would have assumed that she was in on the joke.

Sam is now close enough to hear the story of a highly exaggerated fishing trip is what has the attention of so many, and she's even more sure than she was a second ago that it is more about her husband than about what he is saying.

She bends down, and gives him a kiss on his neck, right in that little crease that drives him mad.

He jumps up, dumping the children off his knees, and turns around with a look of righteous indignation on his face. A smirk replaces it when he sees who it is.

"Hi honey," he says with a false level of casualness. "Not working today?"

"The base is on lock down," she replies.

"Any idea for how long it will be?" he asks.

She shakes her head.

"Probably quite a while since you're not there to fix whatever went wrong. Well, my park friends, you are lucky, because you get the chance to meet my wonderful wife."

"The famous Samantha," a young mother says shifting Sam's son to her other hip so that she can shake the woman's hand. She does it with a slight air of being star struck.

"I don't know about famous," Sam says a bit embarrassed.

"Well, you are in this circle, you're about all Jack can talk about!" another mother declares examining her son, who was one of the boys who got the shove from Jack's knee too make sure there were no injuries.

"Well, that and fictional fish," Sam teases.

Jack sits back in his spot pulling his wife on this knee. Bri makes his "Maaaaaa" sound accompanied, as always, with spit bubbles, and the girl about Cassie's age who was holding her hands the girl to her mother, and then runs over to the playground.

"So, Samantha, we're all pretty curious about where you found this one. He won't tell us," the dog owner puts forth.

"I've told you many times," Jack protests.

"Yeah, sure you have," come several mutters and more than a few eye rolls. All of this hints Sam to the fact that Jack has in fact told the truth about the whole thing. She locks eyes with him in one second receiving and accepting a challenge.

"Well see now, we are on an alien planet, and…" The groans tell her that in fact her husband has broken with security clearance to tell all of these people the absolute truth about their courtship. It's breaking the law, but not in a dangerous way, because there is no way that they would ever believe that it was the truth. She loves that about Jack, the way that he can break the law without ever really moving into dangerous territory.

"I guess the truth is we both met at work when we had just come out of relationships we'd rather forget. His failed marriage. My crazy ex fiancé. We got to know each other for a really long time. By the time those feelings which had maybe been boiling since the very beginning came to the surface we were both to the point where we didn't want to change our work condition in order to be together, and we couldn't work together if we chose a relationship. So, we just pretended to ignore it."

"Until we couldn't," he says giving her a kiss.

"And then they lived happily ever after," Sam says after pulling away from the hug.

The crowd around the couple makes should that should be recorded for a sound track to a romantic comedy.

-0-

"Sam, I feel like I should explain about the park," he tells her later that night when they are at home, and have their hands full with feeding babies.

"You mean about how every woman in the neighborhood ovulates when you walk by?"

"That's not how the female reproductive system works, and you know it. I just want you to know that I didn't go seeking any of that out."

"Jack, you're not in trouble. I know that you're not going to cheat on me with some doe eyed younger woman in mom jeans."

"And what exactly is wrong with mom jeans?" he asks, "I was thinking of buying a pair of them for you for Christmas. You are way too hot to have had three children. We've got to calm that down a bit."

She giggles playfully. "Jack, what I meant is that I know you. I know you're not going to cheat on me with someone and break up a family, least of all, our family."

"True," he says.

"And you don't have to make me wear ugly jeans in order to get me to stay with you."

"Oh, I know that, every alien in the galaxy was after you before we got married, and you were already pushing them away."

"Anyway, I know that you wouldn't have to go out seeking attention. Just heading out the door with the triplets is guaranteed to get it, trust me I've done it. I'm just relieved that there are some situations in which it's not just strangers asking weird questions about how our children were conceived or something, like it normally is."

"No, they asked all of their weird questions the first time, and then after that I was like normal conversations."

"The joys of getting to know people," she teases.

"But seriously," he says glancing at her, "You have to know that I'm not interested in anyone but you. They just like the idea of a stay at home dad, and I think some of the cuteness of the babies gets transferred onto me to give an overall picture of the whole package."

"You've got a lot of your own cuteness, and the fact that you are a stay at home father is as sexy as hell. Besides, I like that these woman have the hots for you. It makes me feel…."

He raises his eyebrows, "Very primitive, Sam, feeling like your own status is raised because you 'own' a coveted item," he teases.

She shuts him up with a romantic kiss, to which the babies object with a loud wail.

"Are they already to the parents-can't-be-romantic-that-is-gross stage?" Sam asks staring at them.

"I think they just might have been upset that our smooching delayed the delivery of food to their mouths," Jack says inserting a spoon full of green beans into his son's mouth.

"Let's hope so, because there are a lot of images of mom and dad kissing ahead of them!" Sam declares.


	43. Covert Ops

Of course, it was Bri, and of course it happened. One adult taking three one-year-olds into public almost every single day was bound to result in one of them going missing at one point in time. One of them takes off running, and Jack pleads with them to return. They stop maybe 40% of the time. The rest of the time Jack has to run after them with his bad knee. By the time he catches one, the other two are probably both off on a run.

What kills Jack, is how long it took him to notice.

See, Mia was screaming about a scrape on her knee (which was invisible and quite possibly imaginary). And Eli had asked for snacks. The animal crackers which Jack had produced were completely inadequate and resulted in screaming.

So, it's only natural that his attention should fall on the two kids who were both screaming with all their might, and not on the one kid who was obediently and safely playing in the sand.

He should have been suspicious about the Bri being obedient part of the story, but hindsight is always 20/20.

As soon as Jack realized his daughter was out of sight he scooped up the other kids abandoning the fancy three kid stroller and all of the attached bags to race around the playground. Even in his panicked state of mind he had enough wherewithal to use an Air Force search and rescue procedure. If it hadn't been for that it would have no doubt taken a lot longer to find her. As it was it was the most terrifying five minutes of his life.

He doesn't yell when he finds her, and all the yelling that he did before was her name in a desperate attempt to locate her.

No, after he finds her he falls into a deadly silence that his kids have never seen before, but one in which they learn to fear in a matter of seconds.

None of them make a noise either as he carries all three of them (a feat which he hasn't tried since they turned ten months old, and which isn't good on his knees) back to the stroller. He buckles them all in. A step he normally skips, because he doesn't believe it makes them safer, and because it is so hard with all the squirming and fighting against it.

They squirm against him, he gives them a look that makes them stop squirming. The ride home is the most silence those babies have ever submitted themselves too.

They didn't know that dad came with an angry setting, and they aren't sure what it means.

At home he carries all three of them into the house wearing the same stern expression. He deposits them in their cribs. They learned to defeat the things a few months ago. Jack had encouraged their early attempts to defeat their prisons. He loved to be awoken by babies squirming into the bed. After reaching the destination of the comfort between their parent's bodies the children would melt back into sleep for another hour or so.

Now though, his children will not be escaping from their cribs.

"Don't move a muscle," he commands before heading out to the garage to get some hardware.

-0-

When Sam comes home three hours later the babies are still in their cribs. Well, perhaps back in their cribs would be more accurate. Jack had removed them briefly from the crib to lock them in the height chair for a meal before returning them to their cribs. Their hands were still sticky with the mysterious stickiness that was the natural result of kids eating, because he wasn't willing to leave his post before them in order to get a wash cloth.

"Jack, what's wrong?" Sam asks.

He doesn't answer.

"Honey, you can't use bungie cords on the crib like that," she says moving to take it off. He stops her hand. "It's not safe," she protests.

"It's safer than the kids running off!" he protests.

"Running off? Jack, are they okay?" she asks looking the kids all over. They look fine.

"I need to keep them safe," he declares.

"Okay, well it looks like you did. They are fine, right?" She says more than a little bit panicked by how scared he is.

"I lost her, Sam. I lost Bri."

"Okay, but you found her again, and she's fine," Sam says reaching over to scoop up her daughter now that she knows which one of them was in peril.

"I lost her though. I took my eyes off her for a second, and she was gone."

"Okay, yes, but that's very understandable with three kids as active as they are. They'll get a little older and they'll learn to listen better, and it won't be so bad. You'll see, Jack, it will get better. Meanwhile we can't just keep our kids in cribs for the rest of their lives."

"I took my eyes off Charlie," Jack says.

"Oh, honey," Sam says, and she pulls her husband in for a hug. He didn't know the tears were coming until they were already coming in full force. Sam holds her child on her hip, and her husband in her arms for long moments until the storm of his emotion has passed its worse point, "Honey, you know that we can't keep them in their cribs forever, and that we can't break safety rules in order to keep them safe."

"I know, I was just so scared. I couldn't protect her," he says still shaking a bit from the excess of emotions which he just gave vent to.

"I know, and we're going to have to take a few more safety precautions. Maybe we consider going out of the house with them a two-person job for a while. You can wait to take them to the park until I'm home or Cassie. You know she's been begging for more hours with them."

"She wants to buy a car, and doesn't realize how many hours of working for $4 an hour."

"Yes, and the best way to teach her that would be to give her lots and lots of work," Sam grins.

"It was so scary."

"I'm sure it was, and you should have called me."

"I was looking for her. I wasn't going to run home and make a phone call."

"I know, but after everyone was safe, and you were home."

"I didn't want to let them out of my sight. I still don't think I can let them out of my sight," he objects.

"Okay, why don't we get them settled down in the living room with some toys, and I'll undo this homemade death trap you've got going on with their cribs before I join you," she says.

"Sam, maybe it's time to move," he suggests.

"What?"

"Maybe we could find a place with a fenced yard. You know, giant fence that will keep the kids in until they are 50 or so. Big yard so they never want to leave. Maybe something with a safer more controlled inside as well, and room to expand into separate rooms when they are a little bit older."

"It might be time," she says giving him another kiss, and placing his daughter in his arms before going to grab the other two babies out of the crib.


	44. The House

Sam knows in her heart that this is the right house the second that she sees it from the outside. She wishes she was a bit more scientific about the whole thing, a bit more objective, but here she is staring at her dream house.

It has a brick exterior, and the front yard is well kept with some hedges, trees, and a short lawn. Jack, carrying his daughters, goes into the backyard first. It has that fence that he dreamed about, with a latch so secure that he needs to set one of them down to get it undone. There is a playset. One that it will take them a couple of years to grow into, although Jack knows that he could exchange some of the parts for baby swings right now. The slide though, no way he is going to let his kids onto that thing for a few years.

There is a deck raised a bit off the ground. Not high enough that a kid falling off of it would cause a great deal of pain, but high enough that from this raised vantage point you can see every speck in the yard.

There is a tree that would make a lovely place for a tree house in a couple of years. The rest of the large yard is mostly open for running and exploring.

The kids start playing as soon as they enter the yard, and Jack looks over at Sam trying to convey the message of how right this feels without letting their real estate agent in on how they are feeling.

They scoop their children up to take them into the kitchen which is off the deck.

It's yellow, and has everything set up exactly the way that Sam would have wanted it to be. There is a little breakfast nook which takes advantage of the East rising sun. Next to that is a lovely dining room with a hardwood floor.

The other side has a cozy living room that has plenty of built in bookshelves. Sam can picture them already filled with her scientific journals on the top, and her children's toys and books organized on the bottom.

One bedroom and a bathroom are on this floor, with three more bedrooms, with two more bathrooms upstairs.

If Sam hadn't already known that she wanted this house for sure the clawfoot tub would have pushed her over the edge in her decision.

"We're ready to make an offer, right?" Jack whispers.

Sam nods her head.

"Time to leave, little ones," Sam says.

Mia begins to wail loudly. She runs to the picture window which overlooks the backyard, and points to it frantically.

"It's okay little one. We're going to try to buy this house, and come to live here forever," Sam assures her.

-0-

When the moved in they had only intended to separate the boy and the girls into different rooms. They liked the idea of a guest room, but the girls would be staying together, because the kids were far too young to have one of them sleep on a different floor instead of just down the hallway from their parents.

Eli was not a huge fan of being left alone in his room. He cried until his mother agreed to spend the first couple nights stretched on to his toddler bed with him. The first night she broke her promise, and returned to her own bed the second he went to sleep.

He woke up not much later, and snuggled into the bed next to one of his sisters.

The next night, he refused to even go back into his room. So, Jack pulled his toddler bed into the room, and pulled the dresser out.

"Part of our idea of moving was that we would have more room for the kids to spread out," Sam argues.

"I know, and one day they are all going to want to be separate from each other, but that day is not today."

"I guess for now we'll use one of the rooms as a playroom for now," Sam says.

"It will be nice to still be able to read a bedtime or naptime story to all of them," Jack reminds her.

"Yes, I suppose we should be okay with the fact that they are staying young for a little bit longer."

-0-

All three of the children are in the same bed. Sam is taking pictures and gushing about how pretty they all snuggled together.

"Maybe we should just give up and put a full bed in instead of three toddler beds. It would actually take up less room."

"They would fall off it," Sam objects.

"Not if we just put the mattress on the floor. Or, they might fall off, but it wouldn't matter. It would only be four inches to the floor."

"Well then, let's just go with a queen bed then," Sam concedes.

"Got to have room for snuggles with Mommy and Daddy now and again," Jack says with a grin.

"I hope they stay a team forever," Sam says giving each of her slipping children a rub on the back before leaving the room.


	45. Independence Days

No one had really expected that it would be Mia who first demanded her independence from the rest of her family. They should have perhaps, because she had opinions about what she wanted to wear from at least the time that she could talk. It was only a matter of time before she got sick of choosing from a selection of clothes in her properly colored drawer.

She wanted to wear Eli's shirt. It had little turtles on it, and Mia was all about the animals.

Jack braced himself from a tantrum, after all they were several months into the terrible twos and none of his children had really deserved that title quite yet.

The tantrum did not come. The sad eyes did.

Jack gave in.

Sam comes home that night and gives each of her children their hug and kiss, and Jack thinks she might be able to escape from that discussion.

Then she looks right at him, shrugs her shoulder, and says, "It lasted for a while."

The next day she take the three kids to the store, and tells them that they can pick out a few pieces of clothing for themselves. Bri gets a pink skirt with a lot of tool, a pair of fancy shoes, and a cornucopia of hair accessories. Eli donated his clothing choices to Mia, because he really didn't care what he owed.

Mia looked at everything in the girl's department. Then, blushing, she walked over to the boy's section looking back at her mother again and again to make sure that what she was doing was okay. Sam just grins at her.

A dog with its tongue out is her first pick. She hands it bashfully into her mother's hand.

"It's beautiful sweetheart," Sam encourages.

Then she starts taking things off the shelf. Pants with lots of pockets, shirts covered in animal designs.

-0-

Bri was the next one to declare her independence. She did it by refusing to play with her siblings in the back yard.

"Color," Bri demands.

"That's all right, little one," Jack tells her, "As long as you take your coloring outside so Daddy can watch you and your siblings at the same time."

This earns him a big we opened mouthed kiss on his cheek.

-0-

It takes four months for the last child to declare his independence, which doesn't surprise either of his parents. There has always been a few month gap for anything that the children learn whether it is learning to walk, or talk, or being potty trained. So why not this one of the most important aspects of them growing up?

"I hate peas," she says deliberately pushing them away with a narrowing of the eyes in a way that is clearly a challenge.

"Well, child, there are other things on the table. Would you like some more potatoes?" Sam offers holding the spoon up.

He nods his head, and Sam plops them on the plate.

"More 'atoes?" Mia requests hopefully.

"Sure, you don't need to hate peas to get a little extra potatoes," Sam says plopping another scoop on her daughter's plate.

Mia eagerly mixes the peas and the potatoes together with a grin on her face much to her brother's disgust.


	46. Puppy!

It's amazing that Samantha Carter can keep her husband awake just by being awake. Silently, still, and awake beside him. He takes her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers by way of invitation to talking.

"Do you want more kids?" she asks.

He is grateful the question came in the dark, because he has no idea what his face is doing right now. He's guessing a dance of terror. Three three-year-olds is the most that he can handle. Especially these children, which have inherited their mother's intelligence, and his mischief.

"You're pregnant?" he asks breathlessly.

"What? No, I'm not pregnant!" she exclaims, "I was thinking, you are done with kids, but if you aren't than I guess my next question doesn't apply."

"I don't want more kids!" he exclaims with a voice more desperate than he would like it to be. "I thought you were telling me that I had another kid coming, and the only answer to that is happiness."

She laughs with relief, pulling him close to her in the darkness. "I was thinking we should think about a more permanent solution to birth control if three is the number of kids we want to stick with."

"You want me to get a vasectomy?" he asks again grateful that the darkness is hiding his response.

"I think we should talk about it," she says.

"Only if we get a dog."

"Seriously Jack?"

"Every kid should have a dog. You're lucky that I am not asking for three of them."

"Okay," she says.

"Really?" he asks surprised, "If I knew it was that easy I would have asked for a dog a long time ago."

"You're home all day, most of the dog care is going to fall to you. I think you've wanted a dog for a long time, but our jobs were not exactly dog friendly."

"I guess I just though you weren't a huge fan of dogs."

"I'm fine with them. I just don't think they're worth the work that they take. Now that I'm married to someone who is going to do all the work for me," she shrugs in the darkness.

"I think I should have added on a lot more conditions," Jack observes kissing her.

"Really?" she asks picking up on his sultry voice, and returning it with her own, "and what exactly would they be?"

"Favors."

"Favors?"

"Yes, favors of a sexual nature," he returns.

"Mmmm, make a list," she says rolling him under her.

-0-

"Are you sure mom knows about this?" Mia asks skeptically watching each of her younger siblings holding a dog which is licking their ears.

"Do you really think I would go behind your mother's back to get a dog?" he asks.

The toddler narrows her eyes at him.

"Do you not want a dog?" he asks.

"I do…" she hedges.

He cocks her head at her patiently.

"Daddy, are you only getting a dog, because we're going to preschool?"

He laughs, "No honey, I am not replacing my children with a dog. I've wanted a dog for a really long time, long before your mother or you guys entered my life. Nothing is going to change when you start school. You're going to go and play and learn for a couple hours a day."

Mia hugs his legs.

"Oh, kiddo, don't worry I'm not going to let you grow up too quickly."

"I got her to agree!" Eli exclaims holding up a golden retriever so high that the puppy's tail flips him in the face."

"What do you think Mia?" Jack asks. "Is it unanimous?"

"What does that mean?" she asks. Jack's children are so smart sometimes he forgets that they are also very little. "It means that everyone agrees.

The little girl nods her head, extending a hand in an attempt to pet the puppy's head. Her hand is intercepted by his eager tongue licking her.

-0-

Sam doesn't realize that the barking is coming from her own house until she's already through the door. Even then, the fact that her kitchen is completely covered in mud is the thing that she first notices.

"I see you got a dog," she deadpans who is, along with all three of their toddlers on the floor of the kitchen trying to corner the puppy. At first Sam thinks that the poor things is terrified by the way it is hoping, and barking, then she sees the tail a.k.a. the source of the mud that is flying around the room-wagging happily.

"I told you mom didn't know about the dog," Mia accuses.

"I knew about it, I just didn't know we were going to have a dog tonight," Sam laughs.

"Hey, the wife says you can have a dog, you get one before she has time to change her mind," Jack says.

The dog darts past Eli, and jumps against Sam's leg, leaving mud tracks on her BDUs. She scoops him up.

"I'll go give him a bath," she says.

"You don't have to Sam, when I said that I was going to take care of all the dog related things I meant it."

"I really don't want to clean the kitchen," Sam giggles.

Jack looks at the floor of the kitchen for the first time, having before been to focused on the battle that was before him, "Fair point," he admits.

-0-

"Again with the not sleeping," Jack grumbles good naturedly.

"Are my thoughts too loud?" she teases.

"Yep."

"I'm worried that you actually want more kids, and are just going along with this for me."

He chuckles, "Really?"

"Really, or because you thought it was the only way you could have gotten a dog. You understand that you never asked for a dog before, right? I mean we've been married for almost four years now, and you never mentioned it."

"Sam, it's not like I've been secretly wanting a dog and resenting you for us not having one. I really didn't want a dog when the kids were younger, and I just started thinking about it."

"Okay, but the two don't have to go together. I guess I just want to have another conversation about whether or not we should have more children."

"Ever since the kids were born I've felt like we were a bit past maximum capacity. Sam, you have no idea how bad I've felt the times when one kid was crying and had to wait until I finished a diaper or getting the milk, or whatever. And the running in different directions, you know, it was bad when they were little. We're starting to get a bit beyond it. This fall they'll be at preschool for a couple hours, next year they'll be starting school for real…"

"So, you're saying you'll miss having babies," she says.

"I will a little bit, but…I am old Samantha."

"You're not old," she corrects.

"Old to be running after toddlers Sam. And if we got pregnant again I'd be even older before that kid became a toddler, besides they are still going to need us. Forever. Like we've just started parenting, and there are three of them. Before long we are going to be buried in school plays, and sports games, and…."

"So, you're really okay with this?" she asks.

"You felt like we were done with kids, too, right?" he asks touching her face, and suddenly worried that he took this conversation in a direction that was very different from the one that she wanted to go in.

"I fell guilt about the fact that you're home with them all the time."

"You're a great mother, Sam," he interrupts.

"I know, and in two years I'll have almost as much time with them as you do."

Jack chuckles, "I forgot to tell you. Bri won't let me tie her shoes anymore."

"No? Is she trying to learn to tie them herself?"

"No such luck, but I do it wrong. Not like Mommy. So, she slips her feet out and into them with your tying. If they come undone part way through she just leaves them like that. Trips over them all the time, getting me glares from the other parents at the park mind you, but certainly isn't going to let me tie them."

"You do tie shoes weird, Jack," she responds.

"I do not tie shoes weird, your daughter just loves you!"

"She loves me, but you do tie shoes weird," she says giving him a kiss on the cheek before rolling over to return to sleep.

"Sam?" he asks in the darkness.

"Mmmm?" she responds already having let sleep half overtake her.

"Will you teach me to tie shoes right tomorrow?"

"Of course," she says reaching backwards to pat him comfortingly.


End file.
